The story of

peace on the plains

There’s a lookout spot at Devil’s Tower in Wyoming where you can almost see forever – the clouds stretching taffy-thin out over the rocks and plains. This is Cattleman’s Heaven. A few years back, Taylor Corum sat at that lookout, muttering a prayer while his heart steadily picked up pace. There, with Devil’s Tower at his back and the earth in his sights, Taylor heard a still, small voice. “A step in faith, a step in faith,” it said, over and over. Later at the bar, his buddy Cole by his side, Taylor made his mind up to quit his Nashville 9-5 and lean in on making music. The songs for what would be Peace on the Plains started coming – Cold Beer, Hot Women and It’s Just Money (co-written with Ben Roberts). Not long after, the Wyoming plains – where he heard that still, small voice – called Taylor back.

It’s one of those myth-making stories – you feel a pull and, in total trust, take a gut-bending jump. You wonder how it’ll change you, what you’ll become. When he tells the tales of his life, Taylor takes on the stature of a real-life myth, mining his own proclivity for answering fate and embracing all the outcomes. Once back in Buffalo, Wyoming, Taylor settled into a standing gig at The Occidental Hotel & Saloon. Living in the hotel’s Hemingway room and working through a recent breakup, he penned his single Western Air and the album’s eponymous ode, Peace On The Plains. 

Life in Wyoming was peppered with all kinds of characters, and Taylor’s eyes gleam as he rattles off restaurant names and quick stops that sound like they’re straight out of Gunsmoke. When it came to sharing life, there was nobody closer to Taylor than his friend, Cole. They were two tall men out West – staying up late after gigs with a Rainier beer and a James Bond movie, playing music together. While living in Buffalo, Cole got sick. Taylor watched his friend deteriorate fast, over a period of weeks, ‘til his life was snuffed short at only 27 years old. Taylor said his goodbyes in many ways – caring for him in his final Wyoming days, cleaning up his place after he’d gone, and pouring all his heart into the song Call Your Mother. 

Peace On The Plains is a 30-something minute view into Taylor Corum’s heart and soul. Produced by 5-time Grammy nominee Paul Moak at his Nashville studio, The Smoakstack, Peace On The Plains sets Taylor’s myth-making personal tales to a spacious and richly-textured country music sound.

Written by Angie Toole Thompson