William Russell Wallace, our Confidence Man

How about some "Mormon Cocaine"?

“Because these are desperate times/You’re looking at a desperate man.”

Were truer words ever spoken? William Russell Wallace’s new album, Confidence Man brings us down-and-out reprobates through keen-eyed satire. Wallace marries gravitas and humor, delivering the punch lines with uncanny timing.

Not only a gifted storyteller but a masterful band leader, Wallace recorded the album bouncing between Ohio and California with a variety of different rhythm sections and helping hands, including artists who have gone before.

Wallace told Elmore the story behind this track. “‘Mormon Cocaine’ was one of those electric moments you live for as a songwriter; I came up with the whole thing in about ten minutes. The hook popped into my head while driving to visit family after a tour (which included a very strange night in Salt Lake City). As soon as I got to my mom’s house, I sat down at her piano, set up a mic and punched it out to a drum machine. That original piano part is still in the final version. We ended up building the rest of the song around it.

“For the video, we were on our first tour after lockdown, playing in Missoula, MT. I lived there for a while, and I always thought the Thunderbird Hotel seemed delightfully divey. I called them up and asked if they had a Jacuzzi suite. The man responded with, “Smoking or non-smoking?” and I knew we’d found our spot.”

Wallace comes by his stories honestly. He talked about the concept for the video: “The framing device is intended to be a recreation of a 12-step meeting. We obviously couldn’t film at a real one (violates the 12th tradition and all), so we set up our own on campus at Mizzou here in Columbia. I loved the idea of the animal masks. It establishes the speaker as an outsider, but also hints at the primal, animalistic things that addiction and recovery can make you feel. Also, every time I’ve walked in late to a meeting, the coffee was almost empty.”