7/10

Grant Maloy Smith has never seemed particularly interested in making small records, and 'WILD WEST: AMERICAN STORIES' might be his most ambitious undertaking yet. Across eighteen songs and more than an hour of music, he turns the upheaval, mythology and contradictions of 19th-century America into a sprawling narrative album that moves from exploration and migration to conflict, industry, legend and loss.

But instead of simply romanticising frontier imagery, the artist reaches into the machinery of westward expansion itself. The Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, the Gold Rush, the Pony Express, the transcontinental railroad and the rise of cowboy culture all become part of a much wider portrait of a country expanding at extraordinary speed and often at enormous human cost.

Figures such as Sakajawea, Theodore Roosevelt and Bass Reeves sit alongside material inspired by the Trail of Tears, Texas independence and the Spanish-American War, allowing him to move between celebration, reflection and darker historical moments without making the project feel one-note.

Musically, the record benefits from an extraordinary supporting cast. Smith handles guitars and keyboards, while players including Rob Ickes, Scott Vestal, Michael Cleveland, Jeff Taylor, Mike Johnson and Matt Combs bring serious roots-music pedigree to the arrangements. Dobro, banjo, fiddle, accordion and pedal steel give the songs a tactile, cinematic sweep, while guest vocalists including Carrie McDowell and Kim Fleming add further depth.

Big-hearted, meticulously assembled and unapologetically expansive, 'WILD WEST: AMERICAN STORIES' finds Grant Maloy Smith treating history as raw material primed for storytelling. The result feels like a landscape you spend time travelling through, fully embracing the feel and texture that history already provided.

Album and book available here: https://www.grant-maloy-smith.com/albums/wildwest