Colter Wall at Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center

There’s something about that room in Midland — clean acoustics, velvet seats, West Texas oil money hush — and then here comes that deep prairie rumble of a voice that sounds like it’s been aged in mesquite smoke and barbed wire.

Perfect pitch.

Perfect timing.

No flash. No hurry. No need to prove a damn thing.

Just like a good cowboy hat.

You don’t think about it when it fits right. It just settles in.

Same with a pair of ostrich boots — once they’re broke in, they ain’t showin’ off. They’re just carryin’ you steady.

That’s how Colter fills a room.

Not loud.

Not desperate.

Just right.

And maybe that’s the bigger thought that I’m circlin’ tonight…

When life fits — my sobriety, my marriage, my routine, my place in the world — it don’t feel flashy. It feels settled. Like I’m standin’ in my own boots instead of somebody else’s.

Some seasons we’re adjustin’ the brim.

Some seasons we’re breakin’ in stiff leather.

But nights like this?

Everything lines up.

The hat sits right.

The boots feel good.

The music lands where it’s supposed to.

That ain’t luck.

That’s alignment.

Roots Over Mimicry

Raised on a cattle ranch in rural West Texas, Hayden Redwine comes by that sound honest. To my ear, his voice carries some of the same grit folks hear in Ryan Bingham—but I don’t hear imitation. That’s just West Texas dust settlin’ into a man’s accent. I’ll choose roots over mimicry every time.

I’ve had Redwine in steady rotation lately, especially after seeing his name listed as the supporting artist on Colter Wall’s upcoming tour. That show I’ve been circlin’ on the calendar? It’s about to come alive in Fort Worth weekend after next—and if the room’s got any sense, it’ll show up early and listen close.

Y’all—do yourself a favor and check out The Quiet, the latest release from Hayden Redwine, pulled from his Southbound Sessions.

This one’s been stickin’ with me. It’s stripped down, heavy in the chest, and honest in that way West Texas songs tend to be when they ain’t tryin’ too hard. No flash, no filler—just space, silence, and the kind of weight that settles in after the last note fades.

I’m diggin’ this one a lot.

Turn it up.

Then sit still and let it do what it does.

Some songs don’t need much—just a voice, a truth, and enough quiet to let both breathe. This is one of those. If you’re passin’ through Fort Worth soon, get there early. The good stuff usually happens before the lights come all the way up.

— Pancho’s Picks 🎶

My Favorite Music of 2025

Pancho’s Picks: My Favorite Music of 2025

Looking back on the records, the roads, and the nights that stayed with me.

2025 was one hell of a year for music — the kind that doesn’t just play through your speakers, but moves into your bloodstream and starts living there. And when I look back, a few records rise above the rest like campfires burning bright on a long West Texas night.

Albums that will live in the canon.

Matt Moran’s The Ba’ar led the charge for me. A record rough as cedar bark and tender in the right places, the kind that feels like a man telling you the truth he didn’t want to say out loud.

Then came Colter Wall’s 1800 Miles — all dust, distance, and heartbreak stitched together with that ancient-sounding voice he carries around like an heirloom.

And Turnpike’s The Price of Admission may be their most lived-in record yet… full of scars, wisdom, and the kind of writing you only earn the hard way.

Vandoliers Life behind bars Took me back into the sunlight knowing damn well not everybody’s rooting for ’us But here’s the trick: We quit living for other people. Every song carries a tone of we survived you, and we’re still here.

Jason Isbell’s Foxes in the Snow capped off the list — quiet, cold, honest, and heavy in the way only Isbell can pull off. A winter album that finds the warm places in a man’s heart and sits there awhile.

Singles That Stopped Me in My Tracks

This year had its share of one-off punches too:

Gedda’s “Thick as Thieves” — a song so sharp it practically demanded an album around it, which he delivered with South of Mars.

Turnpike’s cover of Todd Snider’s “Just Like Old Times” — the kind of cover that wakes up every demon you thought you’d already sent packin’.

James McMurtry’s “South Texas Lawman”— dry as mesquite smoke and smart as a whip.

Best Concerts of the Year

I caught some unforgettable shows this year:

Ryan Bingham, burning hot as ever, Robert Earl Keen, returning like a long-lost uncle who still knows how to hold a crowd in his hands, Red Shahan, wild-eyed and wonderful.

But the night that will stay with me long after 2025 is gone was standing beside my wife and two of our grandkids, listening to Ray Wylie Hubbard howl, joke, stomp, and testify like only he can.

That wasn’t just a concert — it was a memory carved in oak.

If the music we love says anything about the year we lived, then 2025 was full of grit, grace, and damn good stories.

Here’s to more of all three in the new one.

— Pancho’s Picks

Ridin’ for the real ones, year after year.

Colter Wall’s Memories and Empties: Filling Up on the Good Stuff

Some records feel like “new music.”

This one feels like it’s been rolling around under the bench seat of a ’79 Chevy since Carter was in office.

This weekend, Colter Wall finally drops his new album Memories and Empties, out November 14 on La Honda and RCA. If you’ve been paying attention to the breadcrumbs he’s been leaving—“1800 Miles,” “The Longer You Hold On,” and “Back To Me” already spinning out there in the wild—you know this ain’t some algorithm-chasing project.

This sounds like a barroom jukebox from 1973 got tired of being ignored and decided to growl back.

A Prairie Voice Droppin’ In on a Friday

Colter’s been quiet on the album front since Little Songs in 2023, then out of nowhere he pops up with a fresh batch called Memories and Empties, tracked at the legendary RCA Studio A with the Scary Prairie Boys locked in behind him.

That’s hallowed ground right there—rooms where ghosts of old country records still rattle the ductwork—and you can hear it in the tone. These new cuts aren’t “retro” for the sake of dress-up. They’re hardcore country:

steel crying in the corners, shuffle beats meant for sticky floors, lyrics that smell like diesel, cheap whiskey, and bad decisions you still wouldn’t trade back.

1,800 Miles From Whatever’s on the Radio

“1800 Miles” was our first real peek at this thing, and Colter came out swinging. The whole song is basically one long side-eye at the mainstream machine: “You won’t hear it on your radio / It’s 1,800 miles from Music Row.”

Out here in West Texas, that math checks out. The further you get from the big glass offices and curated playlists, the more this kind of record makes sense. It’s music for:

the night shift crew in muddy work boots, ranch hands watching storms stack up on the horizon, folks who still know where the breaker box is on an old windmill.

If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably one of those folks.

“The Longer You Hold On” & “Back To Me” – Empty Glass, Full Heart

We’ve already talked about “The Longer You Hold On” over here before—how he uses space in that tune, lets the silence do some of the talking. It feels like two people staring at each other across a fire pit, saying everything without saying much at all.

Now you throw “Back To Me” in the mix, the third single off this record, and it’s clear this album’s gonna hurt in the best way. That one leans into the lonesome—fiddle, harmonica, and that baritone of his sitting heavy like a storm cloud over the plains.

These aren’t background songs. These are “sit down, shut up, and feel it” songs.

For the Working Folks & the Worn-Out Souls

From everything we’ve seen and read, Memories and Empties is stacked with drinking songs, blue-collar snapshots, and that Colter specialty—little short films about people who don’t make the news but still carry the world on their backs.

It’s honky-tonk country, but it’s also:

prayers whispered in a gravel lot, stories traded on front porches, long drives home where the radio is the only thing keeping your thoughts from going sideways.

If you’ve ever worked a shift that left your hands busted and your brain buzzing, this record is probably for you.

On a personal note: I’ve got a bucket-of-dreams item getting checked off soon—I’ll be seeing Colter live in Fort Worth this year, and you can bet I’ll be the guy in the crowd yelling every word like it’s Sunday gospel. With new dates rolling out, there’s even a chance he wanders close enough to my own dusty zip code, and you know I’ll show up early and stay late if that happens.

Til then, I’ll be right here in West Texas, letting Memories and Empties rattle the truck speakers and spill out into the mesquite

Pancho

P A N C H O ’ S P I C K S : Memories & Empties Drops at Midnight

Tonight at midnight, when most of West Texas is asleep or lying about not being lonely, Colter Wall is rolling out his brand-new record Memories & Empties — a title that already sounds like a neon-lit truth from the bottom shelf of any roadhouse between Fort Stockton and the Panhandle.

And here’s the thing about Colter:

He’s out here singing songs older than the dirt on your boots…

yet somehow still young enough to get carded at The Blue Light.

That’s the magic — an old man’s soul tucked inside a young cowboy’s frame.

And this time, he didn’t just give us an album.

He gave us a trail to run.

Colter Dropped New Tour Dates

And riding shotgun is Hayden Redwine, a rising songwriter with a rawhide voice and a style that feels like lightning bottled in a Mason jar. The kid’s good — real good — the kind that makes you listen closer without even knowing why.

Colter + Hayden = a night where silence between songs hits as hard as the songs themselves.

And for me?

This run of dates means something a little bigger.

Pancho’s Bucket-of-Dreams Moment

I’ll be seeing Colter live in Fort Worth this year — a bucket-of-dreams moment I’ve carried around like a lucky coin. I’ve wanted that show for a long damn time, and now it’s happening right there in Cowtown.

But with these brand-new dates dropping, there’s a real chance I might get to see him right here at home too.

Wouldn’t that be something?

A little West Texas luck sneaking in through the side door.

Midnight Rituals

So here’s the plan:

At 11:59 p.m., I’ll be out back under the porch light, thumb hovering over the refresh button like a man waiting on a sign.

When the clock hits 12, Memories & Empties will be here — prairie hymns, dust-bitten stories, baritone thunder, and the kind of songwriting that makes you stare at the horizon even if you ain’t going nowhere.

Tonight, We Ride

Pour something cold.

Kick your boots off the table.

Let the music walk its way into you.

Colter Wall — “The Longer You Hold On”

Man, I’ll tell you what — Colter done it again.

That new one, “The Longer You Hold On” — it ain’t loud, it ain’t showy, but it hits you right in the ribs. The whole thing breathes. You can feel the silence between the notes, like that space between two folks who’ve said all they can and just stare at the fire, hopin’ the crackle fills the gap.

That line — “The longer you hold on, the further down I’ll fall.”

That’s about as honest as country gets. Ain’t no filters, no gloss. Just a man tellin’ the truth he probably didn’t wanna say out loud.

You can hear the hurt, but it ain’t self-pity — it’s that quiet kind of heartbreak that comes when you finally realize love’s got a weight limit. Hold on too long, and it drags you both under. Let go, and it burns anyway.

The guitars stay low, drums barely whisper. It’s the sound of thinkin’, not talkin’. Kinda song you play sittin’ on your tailgate after last call, smokin’ the last Marlboro, watchin’ your breath rise in the cold.

Colter don’t make songs to fill arenas — he makes ‘em to fill silence. And this one? It lingers.

It’s a reminder that sometimes the only thing left to do is let the damn thing burn out.

Pancho’s Picks: Colter Wall – “Back to Me”

There’s a reason Colter Wall’s name still echoes off every canyon wall between Balmoreah and the Canadian border . The man don’t just sing — he summons. His new one, “Back to Me,” proves the prairie’s still got poetry, and that nostalgia don’t come clean — it comes with dust on its boots and a whiskey scar on its heart.

Colter’s always lived in that space between heaven and a honky-tonk — the sacred and the profane, the halo and the hangover. Just like his heroes before.. Real cowboys like Ian Tyson and Tom Russell.

“Back to Me” rides that fence line like a top hand with something to prove. There’s longing in it, sure, but it’s laced with the kind of dirt that sticks under your fingernails when you’ve buried too many memories and dug up too few second chances.

That line — “like the songs my mama used to sing” — it ain’t nostalgia for show. It’s bloodline truth. You can smell the percolator, hear the screen door slap, and feel that voice that used your middle name only when she was angry. That’s the kind of country Colter deals in — hand-stitched, barbed-wired, and unafraid to bleed a little for the story.

His voice still drips with weariness and willpower both. He ain’t beggin’ nobody back. He’s just starin’ down the wind and singin’ what’s left after the storm takes the easy parts.

So if you want a song that’ll drag you through your own ghosts and make you grateful for ‘em, spin Back to Me.

It ain’t polished. It’s pure.

And it damn sure ain’t Nashville.

1800 Miles

Man, you heard Colter Wall’s new one, “1800 Miles”? Let me tell you—this ain’t no Nashville fluff piece. This is the kind of song that crawls under your skin and stays there, like mesquite smoke in your jacket.

When he lays down that line—

“I don’t know what you think you’ve been told

If I ever was for sale, I never sold”

—buddy, I swear I felt that in my boots. That’s not just a lyric, that’s a man planting his flag in the dirt. Nashville can shine up their pretty boys and sell ‘em in cowboy hats from Target, but Colter? He’s telling you flat out he ain’t part of that cattle auction.

This song’s got dirt under its nails, smoke in its lungs, and truth in every word. It ain’t pretty in the way they like on TV, but it’s honest—hell, it’s real. And that’s the kind of country music you can only play if you’ve lived it, not packaged it.

Nashville’s out there selling glitter like it’s gold—singing about tailgates and beers like they just discovered ‘em. Colter’s on the other side of the map, singing about scars and miles, the kind of stuff you feel when you’re staring down a long West Texas highway with nothing but your own thoughts for company.

Alright, pull up that stool and pour another cold one, because here’s the inside scoop: “1800 Miles” ain’t just a lone ranger—it’s the first shot fired from Colter’s next full album Memories and Empties, due around Christmas.

So yeah, you heard 1800 Miles now—just wait. That album’s gonna feel like opening up an old photo box, smelling the dust, hearing the echoes, and walking through ghosts. It’s gonna be heavy, honest, full of late nights and empty bottles and memories you can’t shake.

So while Nashville’s busy selling glitter, Colter’s still selling grit. And for my money, I’ll take grit every damn time.

Pancho