Noah Kahan on Becoming One of 2023’s Biggest Music Breakouts: How ‘Stick Season’ Made America Fall in Love With Seasonal Affective Disorder

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Noah Kahan is Zooming to us right from the heart of Vermont’s stick season, where things are looking cloudy with a chance of multi-platinum.

Now, if you happen to know what that “seasonal” reference actually is, you are probably (a) an 80-year-old New Englander who grew up with that term as a euphemism for the dog days of late fall, or (b) one of the millions of people that have taken to the music of Kahan, who spent 2023 becoming a nearly stealth superstar.

With the leaves having fallen off the trees, he’s no longer able to hide in plain sight. Many of his accomplishments are there for all to see: a Grammy nomination for best new artist (for which he may well be the front-runner, out of eight candidates); a first-time “Saturday Night Live” appearance; a summer tour for 204 that has already sold out one night at the Hollywood Bowl (a second was just put on sale) and two nights each at Madison Square Garden and Fenway Park.

His fame has grown enough that even non-fans may have learned that “Stick Season,” the title of his breakthrough third album, refers to the fairly forlorn time of year in New England between the leaves falling off the trees and the onset of snow dumps.