Nolan Taylor

The backroads of America tell its truest stories. The heartbreak and heartbeat of the country thumps the loudest in the cracks between its big cities. A 2021 census in Blanchester, OH registers the village's population at around 4,230 people.

Nolan Taylor isn't quite sure of the exact number, but he knows it's small from growing up in this place with his dad and older brother. His father managed plants and factories, yet money was scarce and the winters were brutal. Mom battled addiction and mental struggles, eventually estranging her from the boys. When he could finally afford a left-handed guitar, he started to write and record music of his own, grafting hardearned wisdom, heart-wrenching memories, and hypnotic melodies to rustic and ruddy acoustic phrasing.

As a kid, he found solace in music. He discovered The Grateful Dead through his dad and developed an appreciation for Pinegrove. Throughout junior high, he studied classic MTV Unplugged concerts by the likes of Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana. Even though he primarily focused on wrestling, working out, football, and basketball, he finally picked up a left-handed guitar in high school. After graduating, he spent years gigging around West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky, playing anywhere and everywhere. In 2023, a video of Nolan performing “68” in the woods went viral with 2.6 million YouTube views on the Radio WV YouTube Channel. Achieving virality from obscurity and gathering millions of streams, he tells a true story all his own via a series of 2023 singles for Atlantic Records, beginning with "Wicked Ways."

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