His name has a ring to it. His shaggy face is a knockout. And his rustic country sound, like his already-mature pen, strikes at the heart. Just a little over twenty and this Canadian with a cowboy voice ravaged by time and Jack Daniel's seems to be stepping out of the golden age of the genre. Now installed in deep Kentucky, Colter Wall has already opened for Lucinda Williams and Margo Price, received a blessing urbi et orbi from Steve Earle and his beautiful Sleeping On The Blacktop has found its way onto the soundtrack of Hell or High Water, David Mackenzie's thriller. But on to the album! Produced by Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell), the work is stunning. No ornaments, no effects, just brutal and raw! Colter Wall plays his songs solo on acoustic guitar. It's a total paring-down, the better to bring out the lyrics within the sound. A man of taste, the young man has even had the idea of covering the wonderful Fraulein written in 1957 by Lawton Williams and sung by Bobby Helms, and of which Townes Van Zandt recorded a fairly legendary version on his album The Late Great Townes Van Zandt… Profoundly human, Wall brings to mind a frenetic medley of names: Fred Neil, Woody and Arlo Guthrie, and Johnny Cash. Heavy references for a person to bear, but nothing that would faze Colter Wall... © MZ/Qobuz