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Stick Season (WORD)
Stick Season (PDF)
You can play along with the video in GCEA if you put your capo on the 2nd fret! Thanks to Alicia Meeds and Lana Fawcett Helman for bringing this song to BUG!
During the pandemic, Kahan returned to his hometown in Vermont and composed "Stick Season". After a teaser of "Stick Season" went viral on TikTok, Kahan released the full version to streaming platforms on July 8, 2022. It became a hit, reaching #12 on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. Noah Kahan believes Olivia Rodrigo's cover of "Stick Season" for BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge in October 2023 transformed the song, and in a lot of ways his career. According to the British music copyright collective PPL, "Stick Season" was the most-played track across radio, TV and public places in the UK in 2024. "I think a major pop star like Olivia Rodrigo covering a song that is a little bit more folky and is a little bit more organic sounding legitimized that style of song," he told Consequence, "and my style of songwriting to a really large audience." Kahan's album, of the same name, went on to be his mainstream commercial breakthrough and led to his nomination in 2023 for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
"Stick season is between fall and the snow," Kahan told NME. "It's a time of transition in the weather, but also in a lot of people's lives. A big part of my childhood was being surrounded by friends and family. I thought I was gonna go to college but, instead, I got a record deal," he continued. "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."
The term "stick season" is commonly used to describe the period in late autumn or early winter after the leaves have fallen from the trees but before the snow has started to accumulate on the ground. During this time, the trees appear "stick-like" without their leaves, and the landscape can seem barren and desolate. The term is often used in regions with deciduous forests, such as the northeastern United States and Canada.
Noah Kahan is an American singer-songwriter who signed with Republic Records in 2017. His breakthrough single, "Hurt Somebody", achieved gold status in the United States and charted in multiple international markets.