Music / Colter Wall

The most American Canadian to ever live.

Three dead in a crash on the number four

Two witnesses below and up high

Not sure whose will be done

You can call me a sinner for wondering why

Sleeping on the Blacktop

Colter Wall (born June 27, 1995 in Saskatchewan, Canada is a country musician.

Colter first attracted interest in 2015 with his debut EP, Imaginary Appalachia; this has so far been followed by three albums.

Discography

• Imaginary Appalachia (EP, 2015, Young Mary's Record Co.)
• Colter Wall (Album, 2017, Young Mary's Record Co.)
• Songs of the Plains (Album, 2018, Young Mary's Record Co.)
• Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs (Album, 2020, Young Mary's Record Co.)

Colter Wall's music contains examples of:

• As the Good Book Says...: Living On the Sand is built around Matthew 7:26, referring to sinful lifestyles:

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

• Bar Brawl: The narrator of Ballad of a Law-Abiding Sophisticate is being hanged for killing a man in one of these.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: It's heavily implied that the narrator of Sleeping on the Blacktop has passed through so many towns and seen so many people that he can no longer remember if he's been somewhere before or seen someone before.
• Cool Car: The Devil drives a Series 10 Cadillac.
• Confessional: The Framing Device for The Devil Wears A Suit And Tie is the narrator telling his story to a reverend.
• Cover Drop: The album cover of Imaginary Appalachia is a drawing of a smoking coyote. Sure enough, in Sleeping on the Blacktop:
  Coyote chewing on a cigarette
• Deal with the Devil: ''The Devil Wears A Suit And Tie' revolves around the classic 'learning to play guitar from the Devil encountered on the road in exchange for your soul' associated with Robert Johnson; although the lyrics never specifically mention crossroads.
• Defiant to the End: The narrator of 'Ballad of a Law-Abiding Sophisticate' continues to insist the murder he committed was completely Worth It, even as he's being taken to the gallows for it.
• Devil, but No God: The Devil explicitly shows up in Imaginary Appalachia to take a man's soul; God is only obliquely referred to.
• Drugs Are Bad: 'Sleeping on the Blacktop' alludes to this in its jaded narration:
  Businessman with a needle and a spoon
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The titles of Songs of the Plains and Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs summarise exactly their contents; Imaginary Appalachia, slightly less so.
• Funetik Aksent: The title of 'Nothin'' is written like this.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: In keeping with his Man of Wealth and Taste characterisation, the Devil in his eponymous song smokes a cigar.
• Grief Song: Johnny Boy's Bones is about a Confederate soldier's widow.
• Have We Met?: In Sleeping on the Blacktop:

Corn liquor tastes sweeter in this town

Could it be it's the same as the last?

I swear I've seen ya face elsewhere before

Just as familiar as a bottle and a glass

• Man of Wealth and Taste: Just like in the Trope Namer, Satan is described as this in The Devil Wears A Suit and Tie; a fancy suited, cigar-smoking gentleman in a nice car.
• Murder Ballad: Ballad of a Law-Abiding Sophisticate.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The narrators of Living On The Sand and The Devil Wears A Suit And Tie' seriously'' end up regretting their actions.
• Rock Me, Asmodeus!: As the Devil says:

You're a six-string picker

Just as I, I am

Let me learn you something

I know a few turns to make all the girls dance

• Sarcasm Mode: Ballad of a Law-Abiding Sophisticate is about a thug who is being hanged for killing a man in a bar fight.
• Satan: Encountered in The Devil Wears A Suit And Tie; also referred to in Sleeping On the Blacktop.
• Self-Titled Album: His first.
• Southern Gentleman: The suit-wearing Devil is said to be 'white as a cotton field'.
• Southern Gothic: Some of the darker songs on Imaginary Appalachia dip into this.
• Southern Gothic Satan: The Devil from The Devil Wears A Suit And Tie is a variation: rather than moving into a town and corrupting its residents, he encounters the protagonist on the road and in a variation of the myth, swindles him into selling his soul.
• Sherlock Scan: The Devil is able to deduce that the narrator is a guitar player just by looking at his hands.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.: Johnny Boy's Bones is narrated by a dying Confederate soldier and his grieving wife.
• The Atoner: The narrator of Living on the Sand, who regrets his previous sinful lifestyle, and tries to stop the person he's addressing from following the same life he used to.
• Walking the Earth: Sleeping On the Blacktop is narrated by a jaded drifter wandering around the US; the title refers to sleeping at night on road surfaces.
• Worth It: Ballad of a Law-Abiding Sophisticate:

It was worth it

To see that boy

Cut from the knees

• Villain Song: Ballad of a Law-Abiding Sophisticate and arguably Johnny Boy's Bones, although in the latter Johnny and his wife are decidedly presented as tragic villains.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: The Devil to the narrator of ''The Devil Wears A Suit And Tie'