Ahead of his upcoming album Memories and Empties your favourite country singer’s favourite country singer, Colter Wall, has released ‘1800 Miles’, a distinctively Wallian track in feel and attitude with a honky tonk flourish that is a statement of musical and professional intent.
The picture of elusive authenticity that has come to define Colter Wall the country star (part truth, part persona) is perhaps his greatest asset. Born to a wealthy Canadian statesman, and enjoying early success after his 2015 debut, Wall might initially have been mistaken for a nepo-baby yearning after southern grit. All such ideas have since been decisively and earnestly disproved.
The quality and conviction of the Canadian-come-cowpoke’s approach to “music from the prairies of Saskatchewan” has blown away any claims of pretence or pandering. Rather he has emerged as the foremost gruff and steadfast voice in maintaining the traditional country ballad.
This single is yet another instant classic of this dwindling sub-genre, untouched by the sloppy and diluted pop songs that pack the Billboard country charts. If it needed to be said, this single confirms its singer’s singularity and puts major distance, “1800 miles” to be exact, between Mr. Wall and the mainstream. Its opening lines assuring – “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/ Eighteen hundred miles from music row“.
Protesting the trappings and pretentions of fame and trendy modern society, ‘1800 Miles’ explicitly embodies that simple, traditional spirit of the romanticised cowboy, perhaps as more an icon than a reality. Wall projects a version of himself that speaks exactly to how he has come to be perceived; i.e. the gravel voiced cowpoke, more at home in the saddle than at the studio, making music as a hobby on the side of his real business – cattle.
Whilst teaser clips had suggested an acoustic track, the studio version sports lusher vocals and an extended instrumental outro outfitted with clanking pianos, electric guitars, harmonicas, and an organ that harks back to the iconic sounds of Garth Hudson in The Band’s rockier tracks – another of Canada’s great admirers of Americana.
Due to be the opening song Memories and Empties this single likely represents a new era of Colter Wall, dipping further into honky tonk and bluegrass sounds than he has on his previous two records Little Songs and Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs. Following this route may inadvertently charge a bourgeoning trend in 2025 country musicians after Tyler Childer’s divisive record Snipe Hunter took a somewhat similar rock-forward approach.
However, never one to follow suit, I guarantee whatever follows this single will avoid the contemporary or chart-friendly and will instead be infused with the full-hearted conviction that separates the fleeting song of the week from music that can stand the test of time. Whether the forthcoming album can sustain this remains to be seen, but ‘1800 Miles’ already stands out as one of the singles of the year ahead of an album release now even more highly anticipated.
Colter Wall: Instagram | Website
Review by Evan Meikle: Instagram
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