Noah Kahan appeared on stage simply outdoors of Denver, Colorado as sardonic and heartfelt as he does in his songs.
“Sadly we couldn’t match all my generational trauma up right here on stage,” he quipped earlier than a set change that regarded like his household’s lounge from Strafford, Vermont.
Kahan has been touring his best-selling file “Stick Season” for over 200 exhibits (“We’re actually milking this factor,” he mentioned on stage). However the songs — lots of which confront points like despair, household trauma, substance abuse, and even the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic — stay contemporary for followers.
“I take heed to his music each single day,” a fan, Katie Lowe, advised Good Good Good on the June 25 present in Denver. “It might all the time be becoming. There are struggles in his songs, however by some means the music sounds upbeat. For those who’re completely satisfied, it’ll go together with your temper. However when you’re unhappy, it might provide some recommendation.”
What most followers may not concentrate on, nonetheless, is that Kahan hopes to supply greater than a soundtrack to their psychological well being journeys.
Behind The Busyhead Mission
Final 12 months, Kahan launched The Busyhead Mission, a fundraising initiative housed below the Vermont Neighborhood Basis that gives grant cash to neighborhood organizations throughout the nation serving to to supply entry to psychological well being help.
The aim was to lift $1 million for psychological well being in a single 12 months. However inside the first 12 months of the venture’s existence, it hit the $2 million mark.
These funds come from a portion of ticket gross sales, direct donations from followers, and choices like livestream tickets to sold-out live shows that may be watched from wherever on this planet.
In its first 12 months, Busyhead supplied grants to organizations Deliver Change to Thoughts, Jack.org, Oasis Middle, Mission Enterprise, Rural Behavioral Well being Institute, Higher Valley Haven, and extra.
In accordance with an annual report, not all $2 million has been distributed but, however a bit of over 1 / 4 of these funds have been shared amongst greater than 55 organizations in North America.
“These companions have been chosen by Noah for his or her dedication to psychological well being consciousness, with an emphasis on native influence by offering entry to sources,” a press launch asserting The Busyhead Mission shared.
These teams attain particular communities which have traditionally been unable to entry psychological well being sources.
Mission Enterprise, as an example, works with Indigenous youth to construct wholesome life by connecting to culturally-significant adventures within the open air.
Or there’s the Rural Behavioral Well being Institute, which works in Montana faculties to supply common psychological well being screenings for center and highschool youth. After they determine college students who might have psychological well being help, the nonprofit helps them entry high quality care.
Hand-selected native psychological well being nonprofits are invited to come back to Kahan’s exhibits to lift consciousness about their work and obtain an accompanying donation when he visits their cities, as properly.
In 2023, Dallas-based Basis 45 used Busyhead funding for its 95 help teams, which helped present complete care to 1,140 neighborhood members free of charge. Equally, We Are Household in Charleston, South Carolina utilized funds to supply 1,370 hours of LGBTQ+ affirming psychological well being classes to 103 youth.
From Vermont to the world stage
Whereas a good portion of those funds return into the communities Kahan visits, a significant motivating issue behind The Busyhead Mission is to maintain the singer linked to his New England roots.
“The Higher Valley Haven serves greater than 10,000 people yearly by means of meals, shelter, service coordination, and scientific downside fixing,” one in all Kahan’s Vermont nonprofit companions shared in a press release. “This donation offers vital help that may enable Haven workers to assist so many weak members of our neighborhood. We’re proud that Noah grew up within the Higher Valley and continues to help the work the Haven has finished since 1980.”
In September, Kahan will play a profit live performance in Essex Junction, Vermont for psychological well being.
“It’s such an honor to play in my residence state and assist increase cash and consciousness for one thing that’s so particular to me,” Kahan wrote on Instagram.
Tickets for the profit live performance have been bought by means of a lottery system, since demand for his dwell performances has skyrocketed with the success of hits like “Stick Season,” “Northern Angle,” and “You’re Gonna Go Far.”
On Friday, June 27, Kahan will launch a brand new observe, carried out as a duet with nation star Kelsea Ballerini, referred to as “Cowboys Cry Too.” In a snippet, Kahan sings “I grew up wishing I may shut off the best way my dad did, ‘trigger that man by no means felt a rattling factor he didn’t wanna really feel.”
Psychological well being in rural communities
The openness in Kahan’s lyrics is just not all the time the norm in rural communities, regardless that he has gone on file saying psychological well being matters have been “dinner desk conversations” in his own residence rising up.
In accordance with Psychological Well being America, concern of damaging judgment for “showing weak” usually retains individuals from searching for psychological well being assist in rural areas — particularly these dominated by notoriously demanding industries like farming or manufacturing.
Kahan’s hometown of Strafford, Vermont has a inhabitants about ten occasions smaller than the common venue he performs. And, like different rural communities within the U.S., sees a a lot larger suicide fee in comparison with giant city communities.
Small, close-knit communities additionally make for an absence of privateness, making it arduous for individuals to really feel like their private issues might be stored confidential. Sadly, these areas additionally lack psychological well being professionals. The truth is, 65% of rural counties would not have a psychiatrist or different behavioral well being professionals.
Rural communities additionally cope with restricted entry to inexpensive and dependable web, making it much more difficult to seek for data or hook up with telehealth providers.
Providing grants to native organizations that assist these most in want is only one manner Kahan is doing his half to make an influence past his music — in cities similar to the one which raised him.
Preventing stigma by means of fan communities
Figuring out how isolating rural communities might be, one other core part of The Busyhead Mission is to destigmatize speaking about psychological well being by connecting with others.
At Kahan’s exhibits, The Busyhead Mission units up a desk or tent alongside different neighborhood companions and encourages followers to contribute to a “neighborhood wall,” the place they reply prompts like “I care for my psychological well being by…” or “I confirmed up for myself as we speak by…”
“A few of the followers who’ve been with Noah for the reason that starting and have been following on Instagram already know [about The Busyhead Project], but it surely’s actually enjoyable to clarify it to the viewers,” Busyhead’s coordinator on tour, Lindsay Rosenberg, advised Good Good Good in Denver.
“His viewers is so open to speaking about psychological well being… and I’ve discovered that actually shocking and unbelievable. Persons are coming as much as us, asking a whole lot of questions, and selecting to write down their very own tales.”
Followers can even work together extra deeply and provides donations by means of Propeller, a digital platform that connects followers to their favourite artists and causes, to earn factors that assist them win unique prizes, like live performance tickets, meet and greets, merch, and extra.
“The variety of actions — over 33,000 — immediately displays followers doing issues like donating, watching movies from Noah speaking about his psychological well being struggles, downloading meditation apps, even getting a psychological well being certificates, and extra,” Annie Flook, Propeller’s director of artist partnerships, defined.
“We simply completed a marketing campaign the place followers may take motion on Propeller to win a flyaway to see Noah at his sold-out Fenway Park present in Boston. So as to add, each night time on tour, we provide the prospect to win ticket upgrades, or signed setlists for supporting The Busyhead Mission.”
Music as a way to therapeutic
The followers are a key component to the success of The Busyhead Mission, and people closest to Kahan’s fundraising work say it’s all a pure extension of his music.
Jeb Gutelius is the manager director of Jack Antonoff’s basis The Ally Coalition and helps lead sailworks, a artistic company that connects artists with organizations and causes they care about to make change. His company helps strategize and implement the work of The Busyhead Mission.
“I really feel one thing after I’m listening to music. So, what can we do with that — that relationship between a fan, an artist, and the music — and attempt to do some good?” he defined to Good Good Good.
Hannah Curtiss, a Denver transplant, can also be a Vermont native like Kahan, and mentioned his rise to fame got here at a time when she wanted the supportive sounds of his music. That fan-musician-art relationship made an influence on her household, too.
“His success is so astonishing, however what’s extra astonishing is it’s not simply individuals 16-25 who get into his music; it’s ages all throughout the board,” she advised Good Good Good.
Curtiss mentioned her dad — a 68-year-old Vermonter whose willingness to speak about his emotions could or could not resemble the daddy determine Kahan writes about in his music — loves how Kahan makes him really feel seen, too.
“He has no disgrace in his personal struggles,” Curtiss mentioned, of Kahan. “He’s so open and trustworthy about it, and it by some means makes me really feel like I might be snug with mine, too.”
Kahan’s songs counsel an advanced relationship along with his hometown and household. However regardless of how resonant that relationship has been for followers (18,000 individuals screamed “I’m imply as a result of I grew up in New England” in Colorado this week, leaning into the irony that this seemingly isn’t actually true), Kahan’s connection to residence actually is all love.
“He’s an internationally acknowledged artist who’s insisting ‘okay, what are we doing in Vermont?’” Gutelius mentioned. “Along with all the things else, that’s one thing he needs to deal with.”
Quantifying the influence of The Busyhead Mission past {dollars} and cents is a difficult process, but when the hugs, hand-holding, and tear-wiping at this week’s exhibits are any indication, Kahan followers far and large have discovered some antidote to their struggling in his work.
An antidote Kahan shares.
“I keep in mind listening to music and listening to an artist sing one thing that I believed I’d been the one individual on this planet to really feel. I keep in mind feeling heard and feeling prefer it saved me and that I may undergo one other day as a result of another person on the market had felt what I felt,” Kahan mentioned in a video final 12 months.
“It is the consideration of my lifetime… to assist individuals by means of their battle with psychological sickness and the myriad of different issues that have an effect on us daily.”
Header picture by Pooneh Ghana
