Since Stick Season propelled Noah Kahan into international superstardom, he’s been tough to pin down into any one genre. Terms like “folk-pop” or “folk-rock” are probably the most apt way to describe his recent output, but after he forged a fast friendship with Zach Bryan, it’s become hard not to see the pair as two of a kind musically. They both favor rootsy, acoustic rhythm guitar lines, powerhouse hooks, and plenty of first-person sentimentality. Sure, their respective home states imprint on their music in different ways, but to an outsider unconcerned with genre politics, they have a lot more in common than not.
This assessment has been common amongst fans and has led Noah Kahan to spend some time in proximity to country music. As often as he’s teamed with singer-songwriter contemporaries like Lizzy McAlpine and Gracie Abrams, Kahan has also sung with Zach Bryan, Kelsea Ballerini, Kacey Musgraves, Brandi Carlile, and, yes, Post Malone. He recognizes the appeal his brand of folk-pop has in country music and the bridge he’s built (intentionally or not) into that format.
That brings us to the end of 2024, as Noah Kahan has formally closed the chapter on the Stick Season era and announced that his next release will be a new creation. It feels hard to imagine since his last project’s lush, meadowy world has become a huge part of his musical identity. If you’re one of those bandwagon fans (like me) who got hooked by “Dial Drunk,” you can’t picture Kahan in any other setting.
Currently, a few different avenues are available to kickstart his next era. For instance, he could lean back into the electronic pop of his earlier days or follow the singer-songwriter balladry of Stick Season with something similar. In either case, he would rest on his past endeavors to inspire his next era of music. Though Kahan has an unquestionable fondness for Stick Season and Busyhead, it feels a bit reductive to expect more of the same from him. The Vermont native may like where he’s at musically, but Stick Season also gave him a newfound itch to challenge himself. Making a public show of closing the book on that album for good has to mean something. Whatever is coming next ought to build on his breakout LP with a fresh twist to surprise and provoke his audience anew, just as most fans have grown to expect.
Everything we’ve seen from Noah Kahan in 2024 signals that an official country album should be his next priority. Stick Season (the song) broke down the doors of mainstream pop music in a big way for him, but its stomping, folksy facade will almost certainly wear out its welcome if he pursues that sound any further. We saw how quickly The Lumineers and Mumford and Sons became relics of their time, even though the alternative music scene still considers them serious rock bands. Acts like them may have large fanbases, but the general public remembers each for one dated, hokey song. As a pop artist, Noah Kahan deserves a far better legacy.
Conversely, the Vermont native’s sound is extremely befitting a country music artist on the cutting edge of the genre’s current trends. Thanks to Kahan’s Oklahoman counterpart, first-person, heart-on-sleeve lyricism, indie-rock flair, and a general skepticism towards Nashville are all very en vogue. If his next album experimented with a little fiddle and steel guitar, branding it as a “country” project would hardly be a stretch.
Noah Kahan’s singer-songwriter tendencies have obviously lent themselves to some very valid Zach Bryan comparisons, but unlike Zach, he’s shown a willingness to work with nominal country artists. He doesn’t have Zach’s outsider attitude and doesn’t consider it an insult to his artistry to participate in country music’s mainstream functions, such as the CMA and ACM awards. Much like Post Malone, Kahan seems happy to go wherever he’s invited, which has made him a crafty genre-agnostic. That amiability has already opened a lot of prominent doors for Posty, from award shows to country radio.
Over the last decade, it’s been pretty well understood that the powers-that-be in Nashville aren’t interested in gatekeeping the format from established pop artists; notoriously, this reality has allowed bad-faith interlopers like Bebe Rexha and Lil Nas X to disingenuously claim an interest in the format to game the less competitive country charts. Even so, the 2020s have offered a bright side to this institutional flippancy. Earnest fans like Post Malone have made meaningful contributions to the modern country canon and have been rewarded for it. From a strictly pragmatic perspective, the door is wide open for Noah Kahan to get his piece of that pie; with so much of the industry already interested in what he has to offer, a quality country record could keep his momentum rolling with an audience that isn’t already fatigued by stomping, folk drums and acoustic guitars.
With an inside track to mainstream success, including country radio, an established base of fans who already like what he’s offering, and a well-known knack for being palatable to multiple formats at once, Noah Kahan is the ideal artist for a country music crossover. Strong relationships with many of the genre’s most respected stars will earn the good graces of its establishments, but for the fans, that earnest straightforwardness should make him feel right at home alongside your Zach Bryans and JR Carrolls. Right now, most of the format’s notable outsiders hail from the Midwest, and East Coast representation has been lacking, perhaps more in songwriting than musicality. As we enter 2025, the stars could be aligning for Noah Kahan to open that door.
