A man, his song, his guitar

I’d been looking forward to seeing Colter Wall in concert at the Tower Theater in OKC for months. I adore his “Imaginary Appalachia”, and most of the songs on his 2017 eponymous EP.  I anticipated loving 2018’s “Songs of the Plains” just as much.

Eh…no. He didn’t perform a single title from “Songs of the Plains” that I would pay $1.50 to download, and I don’t understand why a songwriter of his talent would perform “Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie” and “Oklahoma Hills”, unless he thought an Oklahoma audience expected those two old classics to be dragged out and dusted off. (No, please and thank you.)

Keeping in mind that I freely admit to being musically challenged, Colter did me a heckin disappoint on Saturday night. I’m a fan of indie music; I am not a fan of country music. Colter has obviously gone more country in his latest EP and judging from the number of drunk cowboys who raucously enjoyed the show, he will have no trouble keeping a following. Losing one old dame like me isn’t going to hurt him, but I definitely wasn’t a fan of the Red Dirt sound he cultivated at the concert Saturday night. The only high points for me were when he performed “Sleeping on the Blacktop” and “Kate McCannon”.

But can we talk about opening act Joshua Ray Walker for a minute? He exemplifies the kind of music I’ve always loved: One man, one guitar, and his own songs. The poignant lyrics of “Canyon” touch the heart and solidified me as a fan of this amazing young busker.

The second opening act, Joshua Morningstar, was cringe-worthy. He somehow managed to be both manic and lackluster, and his open calls for weed from the mic were juvenile. He apparently doesn’t know that Pauly Shore played that tired old shit out in the 90s.

But let’s get back to Joshua Ray Walker. He was the shining star in my concert sky that night. Quiet, polite, vastly talented and somewhat bashful, he’s lucky Auntie didn’t hug him around the neck after his set.