Kate McCannon – Colter Wall

I first found Colter Wall shortly after I got to college, and if you’ve never seen or heard him, I highly recommend watching the live performance first. He was 21 or 22 at the time it was recorded. In my opinion, he is one of the modern-day greats, and there are plenty of songs I could’ve chosen for his first post here, but this seemed too perfect to go along with the other murder ballads featured this week.

Kate McCannon, while not the first murder ballad I heard, was definitely instrumental in my “Make Murder Ballads Great Again” awakenings. Another great narrative song, I think one of the coolest things about it is the direction the music video takes. As I mentioned previously, murder ballads often play out like movies in my head. Until I saw the video, I pictured this story taking place in maybe the late 1800s or early 1900s. Maybe the 1940s at the latest. Most of Colter’s music has a very old-school and vintage western vibe to it. The music video for “Kate McCannon,” however, gives us a modern point of view, which to me is totally cool and fits just as well. I figured it was worth pointing out as the first time I saw it really surprised me in a great way. Almost as much as when I heard his voice for the first time.

I love the way Colter tells this story. In Monday’s post, I mentioned how the songwriting in “John Came Home” reminded me of Edgar Allan Poe. I think it is pretty clear the influence of Poe’s work on Colter’s opening verse.

“Well, the raven is a wicked bird, his wings are black as sin
And he floats outside my prison window mocking those within
And he sings to me real low, it’s hell to where you go
For you did murder Kate McCannon“

I love how Wall establishes that the narrator is a killer from the get-go. He then goes on to give us the backstory of courting the “prettiest girl in the whole damn holler.” He tells us he’s so in love with this woman that he begins to straighten his life out, getting a job and saving a quarter of what he makes each month to buy an engagement ring for Kate. In typical murder ballad fashion, he returns home one day from work to find her missing. Can you guess what he does next? Don’t forget what the raven told us. I love the buildup before the pièce de résistance.

An alt-hippie rock band out of Texas called Dexter and the Moonrocks does an outstanding cover of this song as well. Link below to a live version; I prefer it over the studio version, but both are great.

Link to song, great video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7E8n7I6IHw

Link to live – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCebq5lLgos

Link to Dexter and the Moonrocks version – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTuCmsr-Ybk