Cam Cole built his name the hard way, playing solo on street corners in Camden with nothing but a guitar strapped to his back and a kick drum rigged to his boot. That busking-born, one-man-band setup has since carried him through four albums, a spot in an Amazon Prime documentary, a cameo tied to Ted Lasso, and sold-out shows across three continents. His new single, “Get Up Ya Honky Tonk,” out now via New Age Records UK, is the first taste of his upcoming album Lost In Creation, and it finds him pushing his sound somewhere rowdier and stranger than anything he’s put out before.
Get Up Ya Honky Tonk
Cole has always made a habit of sounding bigger than one person has any business sounding, and this track leans hard into that trick. The groove hits like a boot through a screen door, all grinding low-end and a beat that stomps rather than swings, but there’s a wilder streak running underneath it this time. Guitar lines twist and bend into something closer to a fever dream than straight blues, like the song keeps threatening to fly apart before snapping back into that central, driving pulse.
What sets “Get Up Ya Honky Tonk” apart from the rawer, more stripped-down material Cole has built his catalog on is how willing it is to get messy. There are stretches here that sound like a barroom brawl set to music, guitars smeared and overdriven, vocals delivered less like a clean melody and more like a dare. It shouldn’t hold together as well as it does, but Cole’s instinct for rhythm keeps the whole thing locked in even as the arrangement threatens to spiral.
This isn’t polished music, and it isn’t trying to be. It’s the sound of someone who spent years figuring out how to fill a room with just his own two hands, now testing how far he can stretch that formula before it snaps.
Final Thoughts
“Get Up Ya Honky Tonk” is a genuinely exciting left turn for an artist who already had a signature sound locked down. If this is where Lost In Creation is headed, Cam Cole might be about to make the most interesting record of his career.
Stream “Get Up Ya Honky Tonk” now, and find Cam Cole on his website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Bandcamp.
Stay tuned to MusicOnTheRox.com for more new music news and reviews.
