Noah was born
in Topeka, Kansas, “a good place to dig
potatoes.” His musical involvement began in
early childhood when he would listen to the
traditional country and country-gospel music
that his family would play and sing at their
gatherings. By around age six, his uncle had
taught him some chords and he’d sit in the
corner with his miniature guitar, struggling to
mimic the chords that they fretted. Between the
ages of about 5 and 18 he underwent classical
training for piano, voice and fiddle (his
grandpa said “never let anybody call it a
violin”). By the age of 10, he had decided
that he wanted to write songs, like his uncle
and grandfather, starting with gospel lyrics (at
a very young age) and moving on to sappy love
songs with piano accompaniment. Throughout this
time, he was also exposed to blues and jazz by
his dad and another uncle, both of whom sang
and/or played in a number of bands.
He and his
brother Nathan spent several years singing
contemporary R&B in junior high and high
school, then got into alternative rock ‘n’
roll. In 1996, the year Noah graduated from high
school, they went to Hollywood and worked with
Mr. L. Entertainment (then a subsidiary of
Disney). Dissatisfied with the synthesized
production of their songs, and unable to crank
out enough songs that seemed like pop single
material, they came back to the Midwest,
traveled to Europe and South America, and played
around the Kansas City area for a couple years
with the various bands they put together,
including the Great Plains Weathermen.
Noah has been
touring as a solo performer throughout the
Midwest for over two years. His debut cd, “Six
Ways to Sunday,” has garnered him praise in
the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as
at home. Most recently, Noah won the solo
category of the Kansas City Blues Challenge and
was a finalist in the International Blues
Competition in Memphis in January of 2006.