‘I Can Hear One Calling My Name’ by Post Malone & Blake Shelton - Lyrics & Meaning

On May 23rd, just as we were beginning to recover from Post Malone's spine-tingling, steel-drenched performance of ‘Never Love You Again’ at the 2024 ACM Awards, the ‘Sunflower’ chart-topper treated us to a second unreleased teaser in the space of a week.

Post Malone took to his socials to share a brief snippet of ‘I Can Hear One Calling My Name’ - which, at present, is the unofficial title - featuring guest vocals from country icon, Blake Shelton, alongside a video of Posty gleefully singing along to the track.

Blake highlighted his own excitement at the impending release, with the ‘Gonna’ hitmaker uploading a video of him watching Post Malone's snippet and raising a glass to his buddy.

We're still awaiting an official release date for ‘I Can Hear One Calling My Name’, but it's due to feature on Posty's debut country album, which is expected to arrive this year.

‘I Can Hear One Calling My Name’ continues Post Malone's collation of an eclectic, era-crossing collection of country sub-genres for his forthcoming record.

After teasing the traditional-leaning ‘Never Love You Again’, ‘I Can Hear One Calling My Name’ finds Posty transporting listeners to the light-hearted, party-starting dives of the 2010s.

Although that period of country music is often maligned, Post Malone and Blake Shelton deliver a playful, feel-good anthem that'll go down perfectly with a cold beer on a Friday night.

Post Malone and Blake Shelton trade lyrics playfully across a bright, summery sea of electric guitars and an energising drum pattern, with the duo producing sparks as Posty's signature rasp rebounds against Blake's charismatic, full-bodied drawl.

“Somebody pour me a drink

Somebody bum me a smoke

I'm ‘bout to get on a buzz

I'm ‘bout to get on a roll”

The lyrics for ‘I Can Hear One Calling My Name’ pivot around Post Malone and Blake Shelton's desire to enjoy a carefree Friday night after a stressful week of hard work.

They underline that they don't mind how they celebrate - as long as someone can find them some alcohol and a cigarette, they'll be en route to a proper celebration. The phrase ‘bum me a smoke’ means to steal a cigarette from someone, adding to the run-down, working man ambience of the track. In reality, we think it's safe to say neither Posty nor Blake need to bum anything from anyone.

“Yeah I've been breaking my back

Just keeping up with The Joneses

Y'all know what I mean

Yeah, y'all know how it goes”

These blue collar personas are built out further and accentuated in the next lines, as they confess that they've been overworking simply so that they can ‘keep up with The Joneses’.

Posty and Blake suggest they're tired of running the rat-race, and want to forget all about their day-to-day troubles for the evening, again adding to the everyman accessibility and relatability of the narrative with the lyric, “Y'all know how it goes”.

“When it's up on a Friday night, and I'm paid, slide one over my way

I can't even think when, I can hear one calling my name”

They emphasise how, when the mood is ‘up’ and the drinks are flowing at the end of the week - and to make things even sweeter, it's payday - Post Malone just wants a drink slid across to him. This conjures up the image of Posty skimming his beer down the bar before emerging at the other end to collect it himself in the music video for his first official country single, ‘I Had Some Help’, with Morgan Wallen.

Such is its allure, Posty humanises the beer in front of him, portraying it as a siren “calling my name”, with the New York crooner unable to think straight until he takes a sip of the elixir.

Both Post Malone and Blake Shelton have remained tight-lipped on the status of ‘I Can Hear One Calling My Name’ so far, but it's clear from their initial teaser videos on Instagram how much they're both looking forward to dropping the blockbuster collaboration.

“Somebody pour me a drink

Somebody bum me a smoke

I'm ‘bout to get on a buzz

I'm ‘bout to get on a roll

Yeah I've been breaking my back

Just keeping up with The Joneses

Y'all know what I mean

Yeah, y'all know how it goes

When it's up on a Friday night, and I'm paid, slide one over my way

I can't even think when, I can hear one calling my name”

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