Noah Gundersen, Breakup Shoes, and Runner

People seem to think that musicians are “getting” younger. That the pop triumph of people barely out of their teens, if that, is somehow a modern phenomenon. Maybe it’s more common than it’s ever been but I think that the truth is that thanks to the internet, we have better access to artists than ever before.

However, in the case of Noah Gundersen, the reason we’ve heard about him at such an early age is because he’s an honest to goodness talent, the likes of which we rarely see. By the time he was 17 he was touring full time with an acoustic guitar and a rucksack full of his self-released first E.P “Brand New World”.

By 19 he’d assembled The Courage, originally as a backing band for himself but eventually becoming a more collaborative effort with time. The Courage would go on to release one studio album, 2010’s “Fearful Bones”, but would split the year after and it was at that point that Gundersen would come into his own as a songwriter.

Still touring as much as he ever did, he released his first full length solo album “Ledges” in 2014, to an enormous amount of acclaim. This is a guy talked up as the greatest songwriter of his generation and one only needs to listen to his turn of phrase and his desperately soulful voice to see that it’s not that far off a claim to make.

The best part is that he’s only getting started, and where he goes from here is an extremely exciting prospect.