1xLP on Black Vinyl

Songs of the Plains bears album art uncannily reminiscent of country albums released during the 1960s. The visual resemblance is intentional, just like how Colter Wall's somber evocation of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings is purposeful. Wall's resonant baritone falls somewhere between those two legends, but his approach leans toward the mythic folk of Cash. Throughout Songs of the Plains, Wall relies on stories and sketches designed to conjure ghosts of the Canadian prairies he calls home. As alluring as his spooky, skeletal arrangements are -- steel guitars are used as howling accents, not solos; he occasionally gooses his band to follow a train track rhythm, but is usually content picking out support on his hollow acoustic -- it's Wall's concrete sense of time and place that gives Songs of the Plains an unusual resonance.

1 Plain to See Plainsman 3:49
2 Saskatchewan in 1881 2:51
3 John Beyers (Camaro Song) 2:01
4 Wild Dogs 4:52
5 Calgary Round-Up 3:34
6 Night Herding Song 2:20
7 Wild Bill Hickok 2:39
8 The Trains Are Gone 2:08
9 Thinkin' on a Woman 3:20
10 Manitoba Man 3:58
11 Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail 2:36