Born and raised in Shelby, North Carolina, Mason Cole’s musical journey began at age eleven with a Christmas guitar and a head full of curiosity. He spent his early days glued to YouTube, teaching himself the riffs that lit his imagination on fire. By twelve, he’d enrolled in a junior high guitar class—mostly, as he puts it, “an excuse to play guitar during school hours.” Already ahead of the curve, Mason quickly found himself drawn to something deeper: songwriting.

 

“I grew up riding shotgun with my dad, listening to Willie Nelson, George Jones, and Keith Whitley everywhere we went. Those were my heroes before I even knew what that meant. Later on, I discovered Americana and Red Dirt—Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers—and it was like finding a new branch of the same family tree.”

 

Grounded, determined, and unafraid of hard work, Mason spends his days with Simmons Structural Movers, helping his father relocate houses and mobile homes. That work ethic carried naturally into his music. At fifteen, he began crafting his first project, Lonesome Again, recorded entirely in a makeshift “poor man’s studio” he and his father built from carpet padding and insulation behind their home. Mason recorded, mixed, and mastered all fifteen original tracks himself—a testament to his drive and resourcefulness.