Seven months since the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, Noah Kahan’s song “Stick Season” has remained on the list. As of the week of April 20, Kahan’s song ranks 10th among such well-known artists as Taylor Swift, Arianna Grande and Beyonce.
Despite the phrase “stick season” originating from New England to define the time between fall and winter, the hit single is not confined to its origin or season. “Stick Season” has resonated rhythmically, lyrically and thematically. Something tells me it will continue to do so for years to come.
Background
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Kahan originally wrote a single verse of the song and uploaded it to TikTok in 2022. After finding success for it on the social media app, Kahan was encouraged to finish the song. The phrase “stick season” refers to a gray area in the New England seasons where there are no leaves on the trees but it’s not quite winter. Essentially, it is an uncomfortable time of the year that makes locals feel anxious for when the season will officially change.
Kahan told NME, “…I was just at home in Vermont making music and my friends would come home for Thanksgiving, when stick season was in full swing. They would leave, and that loneliness would come back. [During COVID] that feeling of being left behind or out of place was at the forefront of my mind again.”
COVID-19, for many of us, was a time where every emotion you felt was amplified by the countless events that took place in the year 2020. With nowhere to be and no promise of progressing your life anytime soon, it was an extended “stick season” for us all. Stick season is more than a phrase coined by New Englanders. It is an aura of hopelessness and feeling frozen in the situation that you’re in.
Resonating with an audience
Like any meaningful piece of music, it started as a personal outlet of expression. Kahan, being from a small town in Vermont, was constantly reminded of his past. Whether it be people, places or the seasonal depression that would bring back memories he’d like to move on from, he couldn’t escape. Feeling trapped in a small town, Kahan’s feelings of loneliness only intensified for during the pandemic.
Folk music gained a lot of popularity in the 1960s and 1970s with artists like Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and Simon & Garfunkel at the forefront. Since then, folk music made a brief comeback in the early 2010s with artists like Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers hitting the charts. Remarkably, Kahan managed to write the hit song in 2022, also labeled as a folk song. Kahan then re-released the song on his newest album, titled “Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever),” which resides at No. 8 on the Billboard 200.
Kahan told Variety, “…I really do connect with that music back then. I certainly don’t feel like I’m ‘All right, I’m going to bring back Mumford and Sons’ or ‘bring back the Lumineers.’ I think I took a lot of what inspired me so much about them into my own music and into my life for the last 10 years.”
Simply, folk music is music for the people. A genre of music to acknowledge real problems and real concerns for the future and how we try to resolve them. “Stick Season” came out at a perfect point in time with lyrics that articulate how overbearing the world has been in the past couple years. In the song, Kahan talks about running into his ex-girlfriend’s mom and her not remembering him, holding on until he can see his friends again and not being able to travel and escape due to the pandemic.
Everyone has felt the ghost of their past life skulk back around. Trying to heal, but the wound is opened time and time again.
Why it will live on
Think of the best folk songs ever written: “Blowin’ In the Wind” by Bob Dylan, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by The Byrds and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot. These songs were written referencing then-current events: the war in Vietnam, the Civil rights movement, the JFK assassination and Woodstock.
The ability to write an honest and unyielding song about what is happening in the world, and how it affects people, is precious. Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” is no different. When we have lived our lives and reflect on the adversity we have faced, a song is a time capsule of those moments that will remain relevant for generations to come.
Featured image: Photo by Vladimir Agafonkin on Unsplash
Edited by: James Sutton
