Markus Sommer - True Sounds of the West (2019)

Markus Sommer is a farrier and singer/songwriter. He writes of blue collar, western values, women, cattle and shoeing horses. With a passion for the western lifestyle, his music reflects his ideals. Honest and to the point.

"Sommer’s songs bleed with the ethic and craftmanship that he identifies with in western values. Evidently, he lives by these values." Says Tyler Walline of the Red Deer Scene; "True Sounds of the West features a stacked line-up of players and song-writers from the Canadian Western music scene. The result is an excellently arranged Western album that highlights Sommer’s narrative story-telling, skillfully written ballads of heartbreak and hard breaks, to straight-talking about shoeing horses.

Narrative tracks like “The Renegade” and “Ten Years” feel cinematic in their execution. “I’m more interested in the song-writing than anything else. The lyrics are the most important thing. I’d rather write a song that has no chorus but tells a good story. The details are important to understand and relate to a character- but you only have 2 or 3 minutes to tell that story. I wrote them to be able to stand alone, but I’m lucky to have the whole band building the atmosphere on these songs. “