As much as I would love to say that I liked Noah Kahan before he was cool, I only briefly knew of him before the rise of “Stick Season”. This was through a few of his old songs, including “Hallelujah” and “Hurt Somebody”– which he has now joked to be one of his “best songs”.
While these were both on my playlist, I truthfully could not have told you what he even looked like before “Stick Season” came out. But as soon as it did, I, along with the rest of the world, was hooked. At any point during junior year, if you walked into Townhouse 60 between the hours of 7-11pm, there was an extremely high chance that “Stick Season” was playing. Along with this, there were even higher chances that at least one, if not all of my roommates and I were dancing to it and screaming the words at the top of our lungs. The release of the single later led to the album, then to “We’ll All Be Here Forever”, which was basically the soundtrack to the whole year. While studying abroad in the spring, I quickly snagged some concert tickets for September, and couldn’t wait. My love for Noah has only grown since then, especially as I discover some of his older songs that really hit home.
One weekend in the summer, my friends and I were spending the night at a cabin in New Hampshire, when my friend Carolyn showed me the song, “Carlo’s Song”. “It reminds me of Julia” she said, “he plays it at every show”. As soon as the song started, tears flooded my eyes. Julia was one of our friends who passed away two years ago. “Carlo’s Song” along with “Call Your Mom” are two of the only songs that I have ever heard that can come close to expressing my feelings about Julia and her death. While I can’t listen to them without crying, and I bawled my eyes out when he played “Carlo’s Song” at the concert, knowing that we have been through something so similar makes me love him as an artist even more.
Noah’s, “The Busyhead Project” allows his fans to donate to certain organizations that he has teamed up with, which, according to his website, “provide resources to organizations dedicated to meeting the needs of marginalized communities with both crisis care and tools for sustainable resilience.” A portion of his concert ticket sales go towards this project, and he has raised over 2 million dollars so far. Noah’s transparency and openness while talking about mental health is truly inspirational, and his music is a way for so many people struggling with similar issues as him to feel less alone. Through his music and on his website, you can see how passionate he really is about helping people, and his commitment to helping people get through their struggles.
While I have still not accepted the fact that despite two presale codes I could not get tickets to his next concert this summer, I cannot wait to see what other random artists Noah Kahan collabs with next.
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