Bear with me on this musical journey.
Eleven years ago, I made a mix CD for the woman I was dating, Jenn Holland, (yes, mix CD’s were still a thing in 2015). On the mix was a song, “All the Hospitals,” by a band called People Eating People, who released only one album, back in 2009. I don’t remember where I first heard it — one of my previous girlfriends might have turned me onto it (if so, Mia or Melissa, thank you), but it had been darting in and out of my playlists since around 2010.
Anyway, Jenn loved the song so much that she actually listened to People Eating People’s album. She fell in love with it, and turned me on to the rest of their tunes. Somewhere along the way, Jenn and I fell in love as well, and she went from being a woman I was dating to my girlfriend and eventually, after many years, my wife. Over all those years, we shared an obsession with People Eating People, a band no one seemed to know, who had fewer than 2,000 followers on Spotify. “All the Hospitals” was one of our favorite tracks, but I may have liked “For Now” and “Rain Rain” even more. But as with many bands, we didn’t know anything else about them; they seemed to be one of these acts who put out one incredible album and then disappeared.
In 2016, I happened to hear a single by a singer-songwriter by the name of Nouela (it’s pronounced “No-el-ah” but I had always called her “Nwaylah” when discussing her songs), who had just released a single, “Nobody.” That led me to her Spotify page and her other songs, nearly each and every one of them a banger.
For years both People Eating People and Nouela were staples on my regular playlists, both in mixes I listened to privately and in those I’d share with others. But earlier this year, I finally decided to find out a little bit more about one of my favorite bands in the world. I did some quick research, and in that moment I discovered that People Eating People and Nouela were the same person, singer-songwriter Nouela Johnston. The two acts didn’t have a hundred thousand followers between them on Spotify, and yet somehow the algorithm had led me to putting both in regular rotation.
Sadly, there was almost nothing about Nouela online, and she almost certainly hadn’t released any music since 2016. I looked up “For Now,” my favorite song, on YouTube, and found a recording of Nouela giving a majestic performance in the back of some bar while people talked over the whole thing. I wanted to travel back into the past and strangle them. What I wouldn’t give to hear her perform her songs live. It broke my heart that such a staggering talent had been heard by so few people in this world.
Anyway.
I recently celebrated my birthday in the Hudson Valley with family and friends, and my amazing wife surprised me twice. The first was with a live performance by my friend Rhett Miller of the Old 97’s, one of my favorite musicians in the world, of whom I’ve been a massive fan for over thirty years. I’ve been lucky enough to write music with him and feature him on the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special. Rhett, as usual, absolutely murdered his set.
The second surprise was a much bigger one. After a lot of private detective work, Jenn managed to locate Nouela Johnston in Seattle and flew in her and her percussionist, Joe Mengis, to play her songs. She hadn’t played any of these songs in over ten years, having spent most of her time on her corporate job. (Which I’m not knocking. At the end of the day, I have a corporate job, too.)
The evening was a revelation, and one of the greatest nights of my life. Nouela’s music was dynamic and soul-enriching; she played the songs with the passion of something entirely new and with the expertise of someone who had been playing them every day for decades. Jenn and I both began instantly weeping when she launched into “For Now,” our favorite track. This audience listened in awed silence, and by the end of the song, everyone around us was crying as well, before jolting upward in a spontaneous standing ovation — one of three.
I believe this: The magnificence of art isn’t measured by the number of people who experience it, but by how deeply it pierces an individual’s soul. And by that metric, Nouela is one of the most successful singer-songwriters of all time.
That said, I’d still like more people to experience her art. So I’ve created a sampler playlist of her songs at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/14IWOGLaKynLojPCLccqQ6?si=eab478c6f4f2457c
Nouela, I wrote this for you. Thank you for what you have given us. It is only in my own greed and self-interest that I hope there are more songs to come, from you and all the other musicians out there wondering if it’s worth it to keep going. You never know who is listening.
