Colter Wall’s New Album “Memories and Empties” will be COUNTRY

You’ve been warned before around these parts, but now we have confirmation. Colter Wall has a new album on the way called Memories and Empties that will be released on November 14th via LaHonda Records, and this thing is going to be COUNTRY. Not that you had to worry about Colter Wall venturing into the world of synth pop or anything, but he’s always been more distinctly a cowboy & Western artist with his recorded material.

On this new album though, Colter Wall is said to be “carrying the torch of traditional country music’s legacy beyond Nashville’s commercial influence” and is releasing a “collection of drinking songs and blue collar stories is tailor-made for the honky tonks, barrooms, porches, and pickups it will soon be inhabiting—all deeply inspired by that 1970s era of country music that still permeates early breakfasts at the diner before work and late Saturday nights that bleed into Sunday mornings.”

Well that all sounds like music to our ears. Co-produced by Colter Wall and his regular studio collaborator Patrick Lyons, Memories and Empties was recorded in the legendary RCA Studio A in Nashville where so many legendary classic country albums were cut. The studio musicians were made up of members of Colter’s backing band the Scary Prairie Boys.

And not only are we to expect a distinctly traditional country sound from this new album, Colter Wall appears to have something to say about the state of country music with this project. The opening song from the album called “1,800 Miles Away” (to be released at midnight Eastern, 9/26) says,

“I don’t know what you think you’ve been told.
If I ever was for sale, I never sold.
It’s short on flashing lights and rhinestone clothes,
1800 miles from Music Row.
It’s Tyson songs on the fiddle and guitar.
And the pedal steel man drives a real mean bar.
You won’t hear it on your radio.
It’s 1800 miles from Music Row.”

Another interesting note about the album is that Colter Wall wrote all the songs himself, save for a tribute to Ian Tyson to conclude the album in “Summer Wages.” Though Colter always includes a few songs he wrote on records, he’s also been just as inclined to cover old traditionals and Western tunes as well. On this one, it’s his intention to put his own stamp on Western music’s more popular cousin.

With so many wanting to make “country” albums these days, Colter Wall is one interloper the country music community will be more than happy to take in.

Memories and Empties is now available for pre-order.

TRACK LIST:

1. “1800 Miles” – 3:24 (Colter Wall)
2. “My Present Just Gets Past Me” – 3:04 (Colter Wall)
3. “Like The Hills” – 2:21 (Colter Wall)
4. “Memories and Empties” – 3:22 (Colter Wall)
5. “It’s Getting So (That A Man Can’t Go Into Town Just To Have Him A Drink)” – 2:46 (Colter Wall)
6. “Living By The Hour” – 2:29 (Colter Wall)
7. “4/4 Time” – 4:59 (Colter Wall)
8. “The Longer You Hold On” – 2:50 (Colter Wall)
9. “Back To Me” – 3:01 (Colter Wall)
10. “Summer Wages” – 4:32 (Ian Tyson)