Bailey Cole is a pop-soul voice on the rise, leaning fully into the cinematic edges of her artistry. With her new single, “My Own Way,” out August 22, she’s pulling up the anchor of her past and charting her own course forward, a journey she’ll bring to life on stage at Play Nashville.
Before she ever stepped into the studio, Bailey had already reached her turning point the moment she decided her old story could no longer carry her. Feeling the pain was one thing, but choosing to say no more was another. “I had to get to a place where I was done breaking my own heart”, she shared. By the time she sat across from veteran songwriter Mark Vogel, the choice had already been made; she would claim her power and let the song flow through her. “When I’m writing, I feel like I’m just the vessel,” she said, “The song comes through me, but this time came with a strength I hadn’t tapped into before”.
That strength carried “My Own Way” from idea to anthem. What began as the flicker of a melody with Vogel quickly grew into something larger than either of them could have mapped on paper. “We co-wrote the track”, Bailey recalled, her face lighting up as she described the surreal experience. “It started from a quiet heartbreak and built into something bigger”.
Bigger, in this case, meant braver. The song moves like a cinematic arc. From the vulnerability of growing up in an environment embedded with addiction to the soaring release of stepping out of someone else’s darkness. The hook’s repetition, “Gotta go my own way”, serves as a mantra. A declaration that strength doesn’t arrive with fanfare; sometimes it comes in the steady, unwavering voice that says: I choose me.
That mantra lands even deeper beside the verse: “Spent my whole life/ Hopin you would see/ Hopin you would see the Light.” In our conversation, Bailey said that “the light” wasn’t about judging someone else – it was the clarity she kept hoping they’d find. The turn of the song is accepting that she couldn’t make that happen for them; the only choice left was to choose herself. In that way, her song becomes the bridge between the ache of waiting and the relief of release – honoring what was while stepping into what’s next.
On August 22, Bailey will bring her song to life at Play Dance Bar in Nashville, a venue known as much for its community as for its spectacle. “I wanted it to be a place where people could feel the energy with me,” she said. It won’t just be the debut of a single; it will be the crossing into a new chapter, in real time, with a room full of witnesses.
For Bailey, performance is more than just soundcheck and spotlight. “When I step on stage, I feel like I’m transmitting energy, not just singing words,” she explained. That belief makes Play Nashville more of a threshold – the portal where a personal declaration becomes communal anthem.
Drawing inspiration from Adele, Amy Winehouse, Christina Aguilera, and Alicia Keys, Bailey is shaping a sound that feels intimate yet expansive. While her earliest songs were born out of difficult questions and heavy rooms, her focus is now on what comes next. “My Own Way” isn’t about tracing scars; it’s about moving your anchor into the present, stepping out into the unknown, and creating something entirely new. And for Bailey, going her own way doesn’t just mean leaving behind what no longer resonates with her. It’s an invitation to her listeners, too. As she shared, “It can be something as small as starting a new hobby”.
Her song is a reminder that the smallest of choices can chart the greatest courses. For Bailey and anyone listening, the future begins with the courage to take the first step. So when the track drops on August 22, let it be your soundtrack to choose differently, to try something new, and to go your own way.
