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Noah Guthrie first came to national attention at the age of 16 when his cover of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" appeared on the Ellen Degeneres website. However, his most recent cover of LMFAO's "Sexy And I Know It" is the first to really propel him to stardom. His bluesy voice and guitar playing belie his young age. Similarly, his music sensibilities seem to be more pop-centric, rather than folk (which one might expect from his surname) or blues. Since that appearance on the "Ellen" website, he has opened for Selena Gomez, signed with a manager and booking agency, and has also completed a Kickstarter project for his first album. The latest update on that project is that everything had been recorded and mastered as of January and he was just waiting on artwork and to make a final decision on which songs to include. (Kickstarter page)
Noah posts a fairly steady output of videos, about 2-3 a month, mostly from a single-camera view with standard live recording equipment - although there are a few videos of live performances. The content is exclusively covers of a fairly narrow range of pop/singer-songwriter musicians. His LMFAO cover is definitely an anomaly among the rest of his videos. In my opinion, what is sorely lacking in his channel is originals. He is clearly a talented musician and unique vocalist (particularly for his age), but one has no idea if that translates to his own songs, at least not from his youtube page.
The performances themselves are all of a high-quality. His voice is mature for his age, and he places his own unique stamp on each and every song. The vocal intonation reminds one of, perhaps, Keb Mo' or Ray Lamontagne. Unfortunately, in the more extreme registers, his voice is missing the tonal color that makes it interesting. This is most evident when listening to his covers of Adele ("Someone Like You") and Bill Withers ("Ain't No Sunshine"). In this particular aspect, his immaturity shows. But there is no doubt that as he grows as a musician and person, his voice will mature as well.
Noah is absolutely an artist worth keeping an eye on. I can easily see him becoming world-famous as a singer-songwriter, either as a solo act or with a backing band. I hope that he soon publishes more of his writing, as well as continually growing as a performer. Personally, among the many fans he gained this week, I am without a doubt one of them.
