Colter Wall Joins Vincent Neil Emerson for “Road Runner”

Amid all the excitement last week of Cowboy & Western artist Colter Wall announcing he has a new album called Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs coming out in August, it was glossed over that Colter was also part of a new song with tour partner and Texas country songwriter Vincent Neil Emerson.

Vincent Neil Emerson, Colter Wall, and Ian Noe were all part of what has now become a pretty legendary tour pairing in the winter of 2019. It was the one Aquaman actor Jason Momoa went crazy over after attending a show. Inspired by the tour, Vincent Neil sat down and wrote “Road Runner,” which has just been released with Colter Wall as a duet partner.

“Every day of that run with Colter felt like we were living in a Jimmy Martin song,” Emerson says. “I felt like I needed to try and capture that feeling as best as I could. My wife used to give me Road Runner trinkets and pins all the time, and it became our special little thing. I’d carry around this Road Runner pin with me for good luck. It reminded me of what was waiting back at home for me.”

Vincent Neil Emerson has been making waves of his own. His 2019 record Fried Chicken and Evil Women was touted as one of the best of the year by many for it’s laid back candor and unique inflections of roots influences. That’s reflected in “Road Runner,” which Emerson cut at Niles City Sound in Fort Worth. At first he didn’t think he’d be able to line up schedules so Colter Wall could appear on it, but when Colter came through Texas to play Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic last year, they made it happen.

“After originally cutting the track, it felt like something was missing,” says Emerson. “Every time I play the song live, it reminds me of my buddy Colter and every inch of highway we covered together. It made sense to ask him to be on this song with me, but honestly, it was a stroke of luck that we made it happen. I’m honored to have [Wall] sing on this one, and I’m thankful that he did.”

From Fort Worth, Vincent Neil Emerson is already familiar to quite a few after also opening for the Turnpike Troubadours, American Aquarium, and other bigger names over the last couple of years. Raised in Van Zandt County in East Texas by a single mother of part Native American Choctaw-Apache descent, he left home at 16, working odd jobs as he traveled around, eventually taking up guitar.

No new word on a new Vincent Neil Emerson album just yet; “Road Runner” is just a standalone single at the moment. But stay tuned.

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