Before Bloodline arrived, Alex Warren had already been carving a different kind of path.
His viral track Ordinary offered a soaring tribute to a love that elevated the mundane into something almost sacred.
It revealed an artist unafraid to lean into vulnerability without overplaying it.
That same emotional intensity carries over into Bloodline — but here, the focus shifts from romantic devotion to familial inheritance, and what it means to break free from it.
Released May 22, 2025, Bloodline pairs Warren’s emotionally honest lyricism with Jelly Roll’s gravel-stained grit.
It’s a reckoning with inherited pain, memory, and choice, framed inside a folk-pop package that carries more weight than its easy rhythm suggests.
Opening Wounds: “Take that pain, pass it down like bottles on the wall…”
The first line lands like an heirloom you wish you could give back.
“Momma said her dad’s to blame / but that’s his daddy’s fault” acknowledges how easily trauma becomes a family tradition.
It’s not about excusing behaviour, but about exposing the lineage of damage.
There’s no clean slate here—just fragments passed down through silence and habit.
The acoustic guitar gives it a warm texture, but there’s tension in every pluck.
Warren moves beyond passive reflection, confronting generational noise with the intent to disrupt it.
Verse One: “You stay up counting down the days ’til you make your escape…”
This verse unfolds like a late-night conversation with no filter.
There’s no romanticism in the idea of escape here. The fear isn’t just about leaving—it’s the creeping realisation that what you’re trying to run from is already in your bloodstream.
“You’re carrying the weight” isn’t metaphorical fluff. It’s literal. The weight is family, expectation, addiction, anger.
And Warren offers no platitudes—just one line: “I won’t let you walk alone.” That’s the real pivot. Not rescue. Not solution. Solidarity.
Chorus: “You don’t have to follow in your bloodline.”
Rather than offering vague comfort, the chorus feels like a direct confrontation with fatalism. It’s raw, clear-eyed, and refuses to let resignation win.
One of the standout lines, “From where you came isn’t who you are,” avoids the sentimentality trap by rooting identity in choice rather than legacy.
And the gospel-style vocal layering doesn’t overdo it; it builds that sense of collective presence—the kind you need when you can’t trust your own thoughts.
Jelly Roll’s Verse: “I won’t pretend that I know half the hell you’ve seen…”
Jelly Roll’s delivery sounds less like instruction and more like recognition.
His verse doesn’t posture or posture—it listens, and then it stands beside you.
“But that don’t mean that’s something that you’re destined to repeat”—that’s the quiet core of the whole track.
It’s not about having a clean slate, it’s about believing a stain doesn’t define the whole garment.
When he says he’ll “meet you where you are,” it lands. Not a grand gesture, but a practical kind of devotion.
Bridge: “The storm keeps on raging, but don’t you forget…”
The spiritual undertone surfaces without sounding preachy. “God’s not done with you yet” is more mantra than doctrine.
It’s the kind of thing you say to yourself when the lights are off and nothing makes sense.
The song could have ended with closure, but instead it repeats. It insists. The chorus returns, not to wrap things up, but to keep holding space.
The guitar work blends folk cadence with modern pop polish. The percussion doesn’t compete with the message; it moves with it.
And the layered vocals feel like the sonic version of showing up uninvited but welcome.
It nods to Avicii’s melodic structures, but stays grounded in the emotional terrain Warren and Jelly Roll carve out.
No section is overstated, yet none are forgettable. The restraint is deliberate, letting each word and chord lean on the next without collapsing under sentimentality.
There’s no attempt here to hide behind genre convention or chase a polished climax.
Bloodline plays more like an open letter from one survivor to another. Its strength lies in how it resists simplifying what’s hard to name.
It doesn’t fix anything. But it dares to name what’s broken—and sometimes, that’s where healing starts.
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Alex Warren & Jelly Roll Bloodline Lyrics
Verse 1: Alex Warren
Take that pain, pass it down like bottles on the wall
Momma said her dad’s to blame but that’s his daddy’s fault
Oh, there’s no one left to call
You stay up counting down the days ’til you make your escape
But you’re afraid you can’t outrun what’s running through your veins
Oh, you’re carrying the weight
Pre-Chorus: Alex Warren
In the dead of night, on that broken road
I won’t let you walk alone
Chorus: Alex Warren & Jelly Roll
Oh, my brother
You don’t have to follow in your bloodline
Oh, we got each other
And if you got tomorrow, then you still got time
To break the chain that left you scarred
From where you came isn’t who you are
Oh, my brother
You don’t have to follow in your bloodlinе
Verse 2: Jelly Roll
Oh, I won’t pretend that I know half the hеll you’ve seen
But that don’t mean that’s something that you’re destined to repeat
Oh, you’re stronger than you think
I know it has to end, but you don’t know where to start
You can pack your bags and I’ll meet you where you are
Oh, I’ll be waiting in the car
Pre-Chorus: Alex Warren & Jelly Roll
In the dead of night, on that broken road
I won’t let you walk alone
Chorus: Alex Warren & Jelly Roll
Oh, my brother
You don’t have to follow in your bloodline
Oh, we got each other
And if you got tomorrow, then you still got time
To break the chain that left you scarred
From where you came isn’t who you are
Oh, my brother (Oh)
You don’t have to follow in your bloodline
Bridge: Alex Warren & Jelly Roll
The storm keeps on raging, but don’t you forget
God’s not done with you yet
When it feels like you’re losing the war in your head
Just know this isn’t the end
Chorus: Alex Warren & Jelly Roll
Oh, my brother
You don’t have to follow in your bloodline (In your bloodline)
Oh, we got each other
And if you got tomorrow, then you still got time (You still got time)
To break the chain that left you scarred
From where you came isn’t who you are
Oh, my brother
You don’t have to follow in your bloodline
