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."

Raised in the California neighborhood once home to Neil Young, Gram Parsons, and countless other Americana music icons, Remy Sher is as much a product of his Laurel Canyon upbringing as he is of studying songwriters like John Prine and Jason Isbell. Sher’s 2023 release “The Things You'll Forget” is at the crossing of classic folk and modern alt-country, placing storytelling at the forefront of timeless yet fresh sounds of mandolin, pedal steel, fiddle and acoustic guitar. The EP “Feet on the Ground” takes a more laid-back approach, with a deeper dive into the raw and acoustic side of his songwriting. Devoting several months to writing and nothing else after a partner “felt the heat” and took off running, “Nevermind” became the lead single to “Heat,” Sher’s full-length debut. Inspired by both the lush, acoustic sounds of 1970s storytellers like Don Williams, and the gritty alt-country movement of the 2000s, the album steers Sher’s songwriting in a new direction. A less on-the- nose, mandolin-led Americana approach than his previous works, Sher's "Heat" is a slow burning record that experiments with more distortion, pianos, and screeching fiddles. His most authentic record to date, produced by Ben Schwab (Sylvie) in Los Angeles, California, Remy Sher’s “Heat” is set for release in 2026.