Songs I Had to Make: My Return to Music
In 2001, I started making music in the living room of my parents’ house in eastern New Mexico. I was a teenager with a massive Dell desktop, Fruity Loops, N-Track Studio, and a secondhand lapel mic from RadioShack. It was all terrible—and it was all magical. I couldn’t believe I could record music at home. Choosing drums, writing lyrics, building beats—it lit a creative fire in me I’ve been chasing ever since.
Over the years, that fire took on new forms. From 2001 to 2011, I wrote and recorded dozens of songs—about small-town life, dusty roads, and Western grit. That body of work eventually became Bona Fides: The Anthology, released in 2022 after years of reflection and growth.
In 2012, I teamed up with Jordan Ennis and we formed Roosevelt Road—a country-hip hop duo focused on rodeo life, small-town stories, and the dust of the trail. We made music from 2012 to 2018, and again briefly in 2022, creating a sound that stretched across state lines and genre lines, rooted in the grit and rhythm of the rodeo world.
Eventually, I stepped away from music and focused on video production. I started Roosevelt Road Video and dove into storytelling through film. I completed a regional documentary for Panhandle PBS that I’m incredibly proud of. But after that project wrapped, the client calls stopped. No new work came in. And for the last few months, I’ve been searching for something that truly lit me up again.
Recently, I made two full albums and two EPs.
I found a new way to make music—tools that allow me to focus on the parts I’ve always loved most: writing, style, genre, mood, and creative direction. No need to sing. No need to engineer. Just concept, lyrics, and taste. I could shape songs around my truth, hear hundreds of versions, and pick the one that felt most like me. That spark I felt in 2001—the feeling that I was making something from the future—came rushing back. The fire was relit.
• Chute Life is a 10-track return to the rodeo arena—high-energy, built for movement, and full of respect for the cowboy way. It’s a continuation of a story I started telling with Roosevelt Road over a decade ago.
• Home is a reflective, grounded EP—built on small-town texture, familiar roads, and moments that matter. It’s not flashy or loud. It’s steady, grateful, and real.
• Dry is a 15-track autobiographical record about my life at 41 and the road to sobriety—raw, honest, and unflinching.
• Hard Reset is a 6-song hip-hop project—focused, powerful, and grounded in strength and grown-man clarity.
These aren’t trends. They’re truth. No gimmicks—just craft. Each project was built with precision, rooted in experience, and made to last.
While you won’t hear my voice on the mic, my vision is all over these songs. I wrote every lyric. I shaped the energy of each vocal. I combed through hundreds of versions, curating tone, delivery, and direction with care. Every decision came from the same place it always has: a deep desire to make something real.
At one point, I considered releasing this music under a different name—since I’m not the singer. But the truth is, these releases became too personal. I wrote them. I built them. They reflect my voice, even without my vocals. So I’m releasing them under my own name: Cole Younger—on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, and everywhere else music lives.
And this is just the beginning. What you’re hearing now is the rebirth of Cole Younger—not just as a songwriter or producer, but as a storyteller, stepping into a new chapter on his own terms.
I don’t know how these albums and EPs will be received. Most people I’ve shared them with haven’t said much. Everyone’s busy. My circle is small these days—my wife, my daughters—and it’s hard to know what to say when someone shares something deeply personal. But I know what I hear. And I believe in what I made.
Some of these songs stop me in my tracks. I listen back and think, “That’s incredible. I can’t believe I made that.” It’s surreal.
So I’m writing this before the music is even out—to document where I’m at. Creatively. Emotionally. Spiritually. I didn’t expect to come back to music like this. But I’m glad I did. I feel focused again. I feel free.
All four projects—Dry and Chute Life (albums), Home and Hard Reset (EPs)—release July 4th. That feels right. Music has always meant freedom to me. That’s been true since 2001. Still is today.
This process was quiet. No big team. No feedback loops. Just me, trusting my gut and going all in. I believe I’ve created something powerful. And if even a few people connect with it—that’s enough.
Here’s to Chute Life, Home, Dry, and Hard Reset.
Here’s to a new chapter.
Let’s rattle the gates and make a little noise.
— Cole Younger
