“She Was Such a Special Person”: The Heartwarming Story Behind the Voice Recordings in Noah Kahan's ‘The View Between Villages (Extended)’

The connection between Noah Kahan and his home-state of Vermont has become mythologised and playfully meme-ified over the past two years, with Kahan himself often joking about how much he loves to write about the place where he grew up.

Kahan's smash hit album, Stick Season, was part-love-letter, part-grievance addressed to Vermont, with anthems such as the title-track, ‘Homesick’ and ‘Growing Sideways’ epitomising the folk trailblazer's complicated relationship with his hometown.

One particular offering, ‘The View Between Villages’, has blossomed into a fan-favourite, with the wistful, introspective track serving as the oft-overlooked cornerstone of the record. It finds Kahan exploring the longing he feels to return to home, before juxtaposing this with the overwhelming flood of painful and unresolved memories that greet him as he drives between South Strafford and Strafford.

The ‘She Calls Me Back’ singer-songwriter croons, “Past Alger Brook Road, I'm over the bridge / A minute from home, but I feel so far from it / The death of my dog, the stretch of my skin / It's all washin' over me, I'm angry again / The things that I lost here, the people I knew / They got me surrounded for a mile or two / The car's in reverse, I'm grippin' the wheel / I'm back between villages, and everything's still”.

It has become a visceral moment in his live set, with Kahan accentuating the importance of ‘The View Between Villages’ to this musical era by dropping an extended version, which arrived as part of his Stick Season (We'll All Be Here Forever) deluxe.

That rendition features recordings from two local legends of Strafford, Hazel Lewis and Melvin Coburn, reflecting on their love for the town. Lewis was 102, a former teacher and an integral member of the community, being part of the United Church of Strafford, Strafford Historical Society and much more. She passed away in January.

In the song, Hazel Lewis fondly muses, “When I, for me personally, I found a town big enough for anything that I want. I mean, I'm not a city girl (laughs) by any means”.

In a new TikTok video, one of Lewis’ great-grandchildren, Brandy, recalls the emotional moment she was travelling back after seeing Hazel for the last time and ‘The View Between Villages (Extended)’ started playing. Brandy movingly shares, “This spring I was driving home from watching my great grandmother pass away and had my music on shuffle and this Noah song came on (her voice is in it)”.

On an earlier post of Brandy's, Kahan had commented, “My only regret is that I couldn't include more of her brilliant words in the song”. He has followed this up by heartwarmingly paying homage to Hazel under the new video, “She was such a special person and I am so grateful for the privilege [sic] of speaking to her talk about the home she grew up in. Our town is a special place, and your great grandmother was a human embodiment of its power and history. May she rest in peace”.

The other voice you hear on ‘The View Between Villages (Extended)’ belongs to Melvin Coburn. Melvin and his wife, Sue, have run Coburns' General Store in Strafford for 47 years, with the store itself having been a staple in the area for over a century.

In his voice recording, Melvin Coburn endearingly outlines, “Strafford, it still has a lot of meaning to me, because I grew up there. Well, I guess it's a small...a small community of people that really look out for each other, and that's the same way with anybody that needs anything. This...this community is there to help”.

With the couple now retiring, the Strafford Community Trust is on a mission to preserve the history of Coburns’ General Store by purchasing the shop and keeping it alive.

It has become a popular tourism spot for Noah Kahan fanbase, in particular, with The New York Times reporting, “There isn’t a restaurant or bar for miles. The main gathering spot is Coburns’ General Store in South Strafford...There’s also a branch of Mascoma Bank in a little kiosk inside the store. Mr. Kahan’s fans have lately been showing up there, asking to take selfies with Melvin Coburn, the proprietor, whose voice can be heard on his song ‘The View Between Villages’”.

Of course, there should be a limit to what lengths fans are willing to go to get closer to the essence of Stick Season, with Noah Kahan taking to Instagram just this morning to politely ask them not to violate his privacy and visit his family's private property.

The Coburns’ General Store, though, is a wonderful place for fans to celebrate both Kahan's music and the town that raised him, with Melvin Coburn and Hazel Lewis’ legacies now immortalised through ‘The View Between Villages (Extended)’.

It highlights Kahan's dedication to being as real and as open with listeners as he can be, with these voice recordings transporting fans into the Autumnal, cosy world of Strafford. With another studio album en route, we can't wait to see what landscapes and soundscapes the ‘Dial Drunk’ hitmaker immerses us in this time around.

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