Strafford’s own Noah Kahan casually dropped his new single and music video, “The Great Divide,” over the weekend. Just kidding, there was nothing casual about it. The singer-songwriter partnered with Mastercard to premiere the video during the broadcast of the 68th annual Grammy Awards, in keeping with Kahan’s general vibe of epicness and clever corporate sponsorship. (Have you sampled his black cherry Culture Pop soda? I enjoyed it more than the Stick Season candle he put out a while ago — too piney!)
The video features the singer-songwriter strolling through a convenience store, reminiscing about a lost friendship over a mid-tempo, roots-rock arrangement.
“This song in particular is really about two people who grew up together, but maybe didn’t know each other as well as they thought,” Kahan told People in a recent interview. “A lot of my life recently has been realizing the things I wish I could have said to people and the things I wish I could have done differently, and so this song is kind of just an expansion of that.”
The advance single is also the name of Kahan’s forthcoming record, The Great Divide, due out on April 24. It’s the follow-up to his massively successful breakout LP, Stick Season, released all the way back in 2022.
Check out “The Great Divide” on YouTube.
Speaking of Vermont musicians, Kyle Thomas, aka King Tuff, is back! And not just with new music — the indie-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist has moved back to the Green Mountain State after 14 years in Los Angeles. To celebrate his homecoming, the Brattleboro native dropped a new single and video, “Twisted on a Train,” that is about exactly what it sounds like: getting too fucked up on a train ride.
The track is a fuzzed-out rocker and represents something of a reset for Thomas, who launched his King Tuff career in 2008 with the heavy, psych-rock sounds of Was Dead. 2023’s Smalltown Stardust was a more exploratory affair, as was 2018’s The Other. “Twisted on a Train” and the forthcoming album MOO, dropping on March 27, see Thomas whipping out his trusty Gibson SG and Marshall stack to bring the ruckus once more.
“I stopped caring if there were mistakes,” Thomas wrote about his new music in an email. “There’s not enough mistakes. I wish it sounded even worse. Rock & Roll is the music of rodents and bugs. It should sound like it crept from a decrepit trashcan or a crypt or a toilet.”
Hell, yes. Watch the video for “Twisted on a Train” on YouTube. Thomas has two homecoming shows scheduled to celebrate the new record: May 19 at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington and May 23 at the Stone Church in Brattleboro.
Indie-soul and R&B duo Dwight + Nicole announced their soon-to-drop record, Day or Night, back in December with an advance single release — a cover of ’80s synth-pop act Yaz’s “Only You.” It was an early indicator that the new album would see the band, which includes drummer Ezra Oklan and keyboardist Leon Campos, branching out sonically.
With the record due on March 20, Dwight + Nicole have shared another advance single: the title track.
The song was “an unusual composition,” according to vocalist and bassist Nicole Nelson, who explained that she and Dwight Ritcher, her cowriter and partner, got inventive with the writing. “It started out as three different song ideas that slowly combined into a single tune,” she said in an email.
“I found the process of creating Day or Night to be about looking inward,” she continued. “Reflecting my inner and not outer world.”
“Day or Night” is available now on major streaming services. Dwight + Nicole play an album-release show on March 20 at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington.
7 Shows to Watch Out For
- Nomfusi at Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph, February 13; the Flynn in Burlington, February 14
- Gogol Bordello at MTELUS in Montréal, February 19
- Candlebox at Aura in Portland, Maine, February 25
- Ilana Glazer at Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington, March 24. Sold out.
- Alton Brown at Paramount Theatre in Rutland, April 12
- Weedeater at the Stone Church in Brattleboro, April 20
- King Tuff at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington, May 19
Listening In
This article appears in Love & Marriage Issue • 2026.
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