Kate McCannon
A murder ballad opening with the killer in prison, premiered ahead of his debut album.
Colter Wall, from Colter Wall (2017)
- Written by
- Colter Wall
- Released
- 2017
- Album
- Colter Wall
"Kate McCannon" is on the self-titled album; the writer credit was not confirmed from a primary source, but Wall's remark that he had very little to do with the video apart from the writing of the song implies he wrote it. Entertainment Weekly premiered it on April 27, 2017 as a slow-rolling murder ballad in which a raven knows the narrator killed the prettiest girl in the holler. Wall told EW by email that he has always loved the tradition of murder ballads, and that "Down in the Willow Garden" and "Little Sadie" had a lot to do with how the song is structured.
He told American Songwriter that a man marries, works hard, finds his wife with another man and shoots them both, and that he reordered the telling to open with the killer in prison, as a death-row confession. He has gotten some flak for the song, he said, and he wasn't looking to glorify that kind of violence. The video, premiered by Noisey on September 11, 2017, was directed by Alexa King and Stephen Kinigopoulos, who contacted Wall on social media and shot it in their neighborhood with friends and family. At the Tonder Festival in 2025 he said death and murder are always pretty good themes for the telling of a good story. It is certified gold by the RIAA, and setlist.fm counts 114 performances, the third most played.
More songs by Colter Wall
Where to go next
Writing and criticism
- Entertainment Weekly premiere Wall on murder ballads.
Film and video
- Noisey: the video for Kate McCannon The directors and Wall's remarks.
Sources
- Colter Wall: the holes are all that's real, American Songwriter (2017-09-12)
- Hear Colter Wall's rumbling murder ballad, Entertainment Weekly (2017-04-27)
- Here's the dark, twisted video for Colter Wall's Kate McCannon, Noisey (2017-09-11)
- Colter Wall song statistics, setlist.fm