Watch a Young Colter Wall Show Off His Distinct Baritone Voice in One of His Earliest Interview Performances

Even in his earliest interviews and performances, Colter Wall still had a voice that sounded like it came from someone 65 years the Canadian singer-songwriter’s senior. Indeed, if you were listening to Wall on the radio (or in a television show, like Yellowstone), you might assume that you were listening to a long-lost brother of the equally baritone-voiced Johnny Cash.

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But, of course, you’d be wrong. If you were listening to any of Wall’s EPs or albums between 2015 and 2023, the voice you heard actually belonged to a 20-something with a round face, bright blue eyes, and a large cowboy hat that seemed to emphasize Wall’s youthful age in comparison to his voice.

The older Wall gets, the more his gruff, gravelly timbre will suit him. However, in 2015, when a then-20-year-old Wall was embarking on his first tour, the difference between how he looked and how he sounded was at its most stark.

Watch Colter Wall In One Of His Earliest Interview Performances

In 2015, Saskatchewan native Colter Wall was taking a break from his university studies in Saskatoon to pursue his musical career more heavily. Wall had already been recording demos as a University of Saskatchewan student. After releasing his first EP, Imaginary Appalachia, it only seemed fitting to go on the road to promote his debut. That’s how a 20-year-old Wall found himself in the backseat of a New Brunswick YouTuber, @JeffsMusicalCar, in the summer of his first year as a full-time musician.

As the musical series’ name suggests, Jeff’s Musical Car features the show host driving a musician around town as they talk about their music and perform songs from the backseat. You can almost feel Wall’s buzzing nerves through the screen as he fidgets with his mustache and darts his eyes back and forth between his passenger window and the windshield. Despite his physical appearance, Wall sounds cool, calm, and collected. His deep voice was unwavering as he described his upbringing in a rural Saskatchewan town where “cowboy culture” (and a coinciding love of country music) ran deep.

While Wall might have started cutting his teeth in Canada, his musical inspirations hailed from further South. He highlighted his love of delta blues by performing the lead single off his debut EP, “The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie,” which is about pioneering blues musician Robert Johnson, who, according to legend, sold his soul to the devil to learn how to play the guitar. The intimate backseat performance not only highlights Wall’s agile dexterity on the guitar but also his impressive vocal control and quality. After all, when one of your earliest interview performances sounds virtually identical to your studio record, you know you have a special kind of talent.

Photo by Michael Kovac/WireImage