Little Songs (Colter Wall album)

The album was recorded at Yellowdog Studios in Wimberley, Texas and produced by Patrick Lyons.[1] Wall revealed that majority of the songs were created in the "last three years". He also stated that he "penned most of them from home" and believes that the songs reflect that.[2]

On September 21, 2022, over two years after the release of his second studio album Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs (2020), Wall released two songs titled "Cypress Hills and the Big Country" featuring Lyons and a cover version of "Let's All Help the Cowboys (Sing the Blues)".[3] However, both songs would not appear on the tracklist for the album. Wall continued to tease the record through snippets and previews over the following eight months.[4]

Wall announced the album on April 27, 2023, and shared a cover of Hoyt Axton's "Evangelina".[5] He had previously performed the song during several of his live sets.[6] The album is set to feature eight original and two cover songs.[7] On June 2, Wall shared a new original song titled "Coralling the Blues", described as a "sad, slow sway full of harmonica and dobro".[8]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Paste	7.7/10[9]
Pitchfork	7.1/10[10]
Slant Magazine	[11]

Jeremy Winograd of Slant Magazine stated that only when somebody learns Wall works as a rancher can the album "be fully appreciated as not just a charming batch of old-fashioned country-western tunes, but as something more personal and carefully considered". Winograd also felt that it "eschews familiar folk-based influences like Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt in pursuit of capturing a more novel and idiosyncratic style".[11] Ben Salmon of Paste found Wall's voice to be "as rugged and resonant as ever", also calling the cover of "The Coyote & the Cowboy" by Ian Tyson "a passing of the torch", with the album "prov[ing] he's ready to grab that torch and run".[10] Pitchfork's Amanda Wicks wrote that listening to Little Songs "can feel like dropping a coin into the local nickelodeon and watching the past flicker to life, and much of that movement comes from Wall's band", who she said gave "radiant performances".[10]

All tracks produced by Colter Wall and Patrick Lyons.