Across Noah Kahan's 2026 studio album, The Great Divide, the ‘Orange Juice’ singer-songwriter slips into the shoes of a plethora of fascinating characters. But on ‘We Go Way Back’, it at least sounds as though he's singing as himself, as he touches on the crippling writers’ block and self-doubt he struggled with ahead of this project.

Heartwarmingly, despite detailing the various challenges he faced as he worked on the follow-up to his 2022 opus, Stick Season, there's an uplifting, rose-tinted sheen throughout ‘We Go Way Back’. Rather than finding solace in finding his voice again, Kahan finds peace in the candlelit glow of a drink in the garden with his wife.

Aptly, given how he sings about seeing so many different parts of the world in the opening verse, Kahan first started performing ’We Go Way Back’ during his 2025 Europe shows.

‘We Go Way Back’ is permeated by a wonderfully atmospheric, ethereal feel, with Kahan's repeated, titular affirmations shrouded in airy, almost mystical instrumentation. This mirrors the sense that, over the course of ‘We Go Way Back’, the protagonist finds some form of resolution to his struggles. The composition is led by the gentle, reverb-laden strum of an acoustic guitar, giving this song a peaceful ambience that echoes the soothing, healing spirit of the narrative.

Kahan begins by outlining how he's seen a dizzying array of countries as part of his colossal world tours, but these exotic views pale in comparison to seeing his wife in the driveway.

It feels like ‘We Go Way Back’ takes place after the couple have decided to leave behind the fast-paced lifestyle of Nashville in favour of returning to their beloved home-state of Vermont, with Kahan referencing the quietude and solace he finds “out here”.

There's a particularly poignant line in the first verse, where Kahan sadly croons, “I can hear the song of the robin, I haven’t wrote my own in a long time”. This hints at the writers’ block he tussled with throughout the lead-up to his Stick Season follow-up, which he touched on in his 2026 Netflix documentary, Out of Body. Kahan expressed how, given how successful Stick Season had been, he felt the weight of expectation to outdo it (something he arguably achieves on The Great Divide).

On ‘We Go Way Back’, Kahan movingly decides to stop letting these fears consume him, and to embrace the prospect of never outshining Stick Season, and perhaps never writing another song. He muses, “I don’t need my name back, throw my notebook in the basement”, accepting the possibility of fans forgetting who he is. All that matters, he's realised, is the love he and his wife, friends and family share (“Heaven is a drink in the backyard, as we watch the storm touch down”).

As part of his official The Great Divide album announcement, Kahan shed some illuminating light on what this body of work represents to him, “From a long silence forms a divide, a great expanse demanding attention. I stare across it. I see old friends, my father, my mother, my siblings, my younger self, the great state of Vermont. I want to scream these feelings, to gesticulate wildly at the figures on the other side, but my voice has grown hoarse and muted after years of climbing a ladder towards the wild, spiraling dreams that have materialized in front of me”.

The Vermont native offers insight into his creative process, “Instead, I wrote them down next to a piano in Nashville, next to a pond in Guilford Vermont, in a legendary studio in upstate New York, on a farm with a firetower in Only, Tennessee. The songs are the words I would say if I could. They are the fears I dance with in the moments before I drift off to sleep. The music here is my best attempt to delve deeper into the people, places, and feelings that have made me who I am. I am grateful for all of it, for all of you, for listening to them, if you choose to do so”.

Kahan has repeatedly touched on how challenging he found the writing process for The Great Divide, as the pressure to outdo his magnum opus, Stick Season, weighed on him, something he explored in-depth in his 2026 Netflix documentary, Out of Body. During an interview with Zach Sang, he reflected on how he managed to overcome his writers’ block, “It was a hugely cathartic experience. I had been so stressed and so lost and was literally thinking about quitting and going to work at my golf course as a divot repair person”, adding, “The Great Divide for me, I’m so proud of, because not only did it come out of a time of great pressure and expectation. I felt like I was fully able to say what I wanted to say in the songs”.

“Saw the world from up close, it ain’t much to look at

Compared to you in your work clothes, waving hello from the driveway

I can’t make myself whole, most days I’d be lucky just to get half

But you’ve seen me in places so low, you can recognize when it’s real bad

When it’s real bad

Used to hate the silence, used to make me think about the old days

And all the miles in my legs, the late flights and missed birthdays

Out here I can hear your heartbeat, I can hear the start of a long sigh

I can hear the song of the robin, I haven’t wrote my own in a long time

And it’s just fine

-

‘Cause I don’t need my name back, throw my notebook in the basement

Oh, I love you and I can’t fake that for a moment

We go way back, we go way back

Tell me I don't need options, that I have substance, that I'm important

If it's only for letting dogs out, sweeping porches, to make me nothing

Take me way back

We go way back

-

The little pebble marks on your car door, the sound of your feet on the gravel

Said I’m always tryna run from what I’m known for, baby that's the thing about a shadow

I’ve never seen the rain fall so hard, honey, we’re north of nowhere now

Heaven is a drink in the backyard, as we watch the storm touch down

And it’s pouring out

-

And I don’t need my name back, throw my notebook in the basement

Oh, I love you and I can’t fake that for a moment

We go way back, we go way back

Tell me I don't need options, that I have substance, that I'm important

If it's only for letting dogs out, sweeping porches, well make me nothing

Take me way back

We go way back

Take me way, way back

We go way back”

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Noah Kahan

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