Colter Wall Canadian Singer Born 1995 in Swift Current

Early life

Colter Wall is a Canadian singer, songwriter and musician, born on 27 June 1995 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. He is a son of Brad Wall, who served as premier of Saskatchewan. Wall attended Swift Current Comprehensive High School, graduating in 2013, and then went on to the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

Music came early. Country records, Johnny Cash among them, were played at home, and Wall began learning guitar at the age of 13, starting with rock bands such as AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. His taste moved on to older blues players and then to folk. He has said that hearing Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" around grade 10 or 11 pushed him to write and sing songs rather than only play guitar. Other early reference points he has named include Woody Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and he has spoken of admiring country singers such as Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Hank Williams.

While at university Wall made demo recordings of his own songs. In 2015, when his first EP came out, he put his studies on hold to concentrate on music.

Career

That first release, Imaginary Appalachia, was a seven-song EP produced by Jason Plumb at Studio One in Regina, Saskatchewan, with contributions from other Regina artists including Belle Plaine and The Dead South. It was released on 9 March 2015, with "The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie" as its first single. Wall described the sound as a blend of blues, folk and Americana. Attention grew later that year after the professional wrestler Brock Lesnar named him as a favourite artist in an interview with Steve Austin. One track from the EP, "Sleeping on the Blacktop", went on to be used in the films Hell or High Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, in the television shows Dog the Bounty Hunter and The Peripheral, and in the Netflix series Kaos and Untamed.

In 2016 Wall opened for Lucinda Williams at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and signed with Rick Rubin's American Songs publishing company. His self-titled first album was produced by Dave Cobb at RCA Studio A in Nashville and released on 12 May 2017. Cobb played acoustic guitar on the sessions, joined by Chris Powell on drums, Mike Webb on piano and Robby Turner on pedal steel. Wall has said that most of the songs are autobiographical.

His second album, Songs of the Plains, was announced in July 2018 and released on 12 October of that year. The third, Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs, came out on 28 August 2020 on the independent label La Honda Records, and includes a cover of Marty Robbins's "Big Iron". Little Songs followed on 14 July 2023, preceded by the singles "Evangelina" and "Coralling the Blues". A fifth album, Memories and Empties, was released on 14 November 2025.

Wall's recordings have also reached a wider audience through television. Three of his songs were used in the fourth season of the Paramount series Yellowstone: his version of Rex Allen's "Cowpoke", his own "Plain to See Plainsman", and "Sleeping on the Blacktop". "Caroline" was heard at the end of a third-season episode. His YouTube channel had about 427,000 subscribers as of May 2025.