This week, Noah Kahan becomes the first artist in history to sell out four shows at Fenway Park, a feat made all the more momentous by the fact that Kahan - as he proudly declares on ‘Homesick’ - grew up a short drive away from Boston in Strafford, Vermont.

It's the Vermont native's first time returning to the home of the Boston Red Sox since his now-iconic double-header there in 2024, which spawned an entire live album in its honour.

But just like his complex relationship with his hometown of Strafford, Kahan's connection with Boston and Fenway Park is multi-faceted, as he highlights in his 2026 Netflix documentary, Out of Body. He cites his 2024 Fenway shows as the high-points of his career so far, even joking about retiring afterwards, but Kahan also admits that they came at a time when his mental health had reached an all-time low.

When driving to Boston - something Kahan says he has done more times than he would have liked to - he muses, “Fenway is definitely a peak in my career. I told my management I was gonna retire after Fenway. And they did not like that...We've never even done anything close.” Backstage, he gushes, “Fenway Park, the biggest show of my life. Oh my God”, before confessing, “I'm stressing, big time”.

During the set, Kahan makes it clear to the packed-out crowd why this is such a meaningful show to him, with Boston holding a special pace in his heart, “It's so good to be home...I lived up the road in Watertown, Massachusetts. My mom went to Boston College. My dad went to MIT. And I'm playing f***ing Fenway Park tonight”.

Towards the end of the performance, the ‘Northern Attitude’ singer-songwriter expresses his gratitude to fans, “Boston, thank you so much for the greatest night of my young life”.

But the day after the show, we see Kahan pottering about at his mother's house, a bucolic scene that clashes jarringly with the bright lights, euphoria and electricity of his set. It's immediately after his wildly successful Fenway shows that Kahan reflects, “I don't think my mental health has ever been as low as it has been the last three months of my life...I'm trying to run away from a lot of stuff right now”.

In the documentary, it almost feels as though Kahan's homecoming shows at Fenway Park serve as an emotional crescendo, where the jubilation of his performances and the rush that arrives with fulfilling his childhood dream of headlining there suddenly come crashing down the day after, forcing him to sit with a range of uncomfortable feelings. It's portrayed as both a breaking-point and, thankfully, a turning-point, with Kahan continuing to work on himself and his mental health through the remainder of the documentary, as he completes The Great Divide.

There must be a number of conflicting and confusing emotions, therefore, that will arise as Kahan gears up for his four-night stint at Fenway Park - his first shows here since that fateful 2024 double-header. Regardless of how open Kahan is with his listeners, we as fans cannot claim to know where he's currently at mentally.

But given how Kahan has been talking in interviews, the overall arc of The Great Divide and the trajectory of the documentary, we can only hope that he comes back to Fenway Park this week in a much happier and more content headspace than in 2024.

Because this is a man who, arguably more than any other artist in the modern landscape, uses his own pain and the lessons he has learnt from this as a means of helping his listeners. Kahan is a touchstone for how to talk about mental health as an artist in 2026, and how to empathise with - rather than pontificate to - fans.

As a result, Kahan's four Fenway Park shows will likely be a mix of untethered celebration and visceral catharsis, with special guests and surprise setlist inclusions aplenty. The Great Divide is one of the most enchanting and moving albums of the year so far, and we can't wait to see Kahan bring it to life in this poignant setting.