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
,
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
's concrete sense of time and place that gives
an unusual resonance. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine