When Cameron Whitcomb went to record his debut album on the heels of a meteoric rise, he laid out one rule for himself. “I want to tell the truth,” he says of a record that explores mental darkness, teenage addiction, recovery and — eventually — hope.

That record is The Hard Way , a deeply personal full-length project for Whitcomb. A 22-year-old from Nanaimo, British Columbia, he’s already seen three singles certified gold or better in Canada and was named Breakthrough Artist of the Year last month at the Canadian Country Music Awards.

The Hard Way stands as a 15-track record best understood as Whitcomb’s autobiography. With the country music landscape now punctuated by a generation of young songwriters laying bare personal trauma and intense heartache, Whitcomb wanted his first ful

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