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 hard earned 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.”