Cole The Bull’s “Family Tree” Turns Inherited Shame Into a Line in the Sand
Some family histories are carried like heirlooms. Cole The Bull’s “Family Tree” asks what happens when you decide to put yours to the fire.
The Utah-based singer-songwriter calls his sound “Grunge Americana,” a fitting description for a debut single that pairs alt-country’s plainspoken storytelling with the defiance of a rock-and-roll declaration. Recorded in Nashville with producer Sergio Sanchez, “Family Tree” introduces Cole not with a polished origin story, but with a hard-won boundary: “I’ll take a chainsaw to my family tree.”
The song’s narrator was “never” claimed by the family whose name he carried. He traces the damage through belief, silence and the ghosts passed from one generation to the next, then refuses to let that history write the future. The repeated admission—“I own this shame,” lands less like surrender than an act of reclaiming. The shame may be part of his story, but it doesn’t get to decide what he passes on.
That distinction gives the song its weight. “Family Tree” isn’t simply about cutting ties; it’s about recognizing how deeply harm can take root and choosing, with force, to stop it there. The bridge sharpens that choice into a challenge, while the final image, some trees are better suited for bonfire smoke, leaves no doubt about where Cole stands.
Cole makes that stance explicit in an exclusive quote: “This song is saying fuck you to abuse, and always standing up for yourself.” He describes it as the start of an unapologetically authentic career: “Love me or hate me, you will respect how I carry myself.” It’s a brash introduction, but the song earns the bravado by grounding it in something more vulnerable than swagger: the decision to live with the truth without letting it keep doing damage.
On “Family Tree,” Cole The Bull turns a painful inheritance into a refusal. The past may have shaped him, but it doesn’t get the final word, or another generation. With a debut this personal and unflinching, Cole The Bull is an artist on the rise worth listening to.
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