Noah Kahan returned to Saturday Night Live with performances of two songs from his latest album, The Great Divide.
Kahan, who debuted on SNL in December 2023, opened with the album’s title track. Kahan wrote “The Great Divide” with Gabe Simon, the producer of Kahan’s Stick Season.
The Great Divide, Kahan’s fourth studio album, is “a smart synthesis of Bon Iver’s ethereal falsetto indie-folk, Zach Bryan‘s everyman storytelling, Mumford & Sons’ acoustic stomp, and a Taylor Swiftian eye for lyrical detail, not to mention well-constructed bridges — all carefully weaved, well-wrought, and rendered with a tasteful light touch and a real pop sensibility,” Rolling Stone‘s Jon Dolan wrote in a review. It charted well, reaching the top spot on the Billboard 200, as well as the Top Rock & Alternative and Top Americana/Folk albums.
The Vermont singer-songwriter, who broke onto the scene with “Stick Season,” doesn’t mind comparisons to what some have described pejoratively as “stomp clap hey” music.
“I always thought the millennial 2010s thing was brilliant, and I never stopped loving it,” Kahan, Rolling Stone‘s June cover artist, told us in an interview. “I’ve always felt very defensive of their sound. A lot of times people [hear my music] and are like, ‘This is just some Mumford & Sons shit.’ I’m like, ‘I love Mumford & Sons! Thank you for the compliment!’”
Kahan’s second performance from the 17-track, 77-minute album was of “Doors,” which he wrote with Sam Westhoff.
Kahan, 29, is beginning The Great Divide Tour next month in Orlando, with multi-show stops in Boston, Chicago, New York, Denver and Seattle.
Kahan is also headlining Stateside, Rolling Stone‘s first music festival, on July 4th in Kingston, New York.