Noelle Toland describes her music as modern, old-school country. Although she didn’t come from a musical family, her family were huge music fans.
Toland said, “My mother introduced me to Patsy Cline. She loved singer-songwriters, and my dad loved soul music.”
Toland started singing at a young age, not because someone told her she was super talented, but because she loved singing.
She explained, “I started singing in my kindergarten choir. That was the first time I got on stage. I remember loving the feeling of being on stage. That led me to get into musical theater, and the rest is history.”
Growing up in rural White Plains, Oregon, Toland identifies wholeheartedly with the country music genre. “We tailgated, horsed around on farms, and loved the heartbreak behind the stories we grew up listening to,” she reflected.
After high school, Toland attended Loyola Marymount University, where she studied history and musical theater and participated in choir and musicals. Upon graduation, she moved to Nashville in 2020.
But with all Toland’s performances, songwriting has always been her favorite.
She said, “Songwriting is like this magical experience that I can’t really explain. I’m still a student and try to learn from the greats and absorb as much as possible. I study fantastic songs, how they work, and why they’re so great.”
While Toland has been singing and writing songs most of her life, she still struggles with music theory. She stated, “I’ve always been mystified by how music works.”
Learning an instrument, especially a guitar, was challenging for Toland because she was left-handed and lacked a musical background. But when she moved to Nashville, she learned to play using the Nashville Number System, an innovative way to play guitar created by the Jordanaires that is still used today. It gave her competence and confidence to play along with the songs she wrote.
While she was in college in L.A., Toland recorded a few songs with a producer who had a studio in his apartment. One of the songs she recorded was an acoustic tune written for her mother called “Prove Your Value.” Her producer recommended that she pitch it to a label in Nashville.
“I only intended for A & R people to listen to it because it was a one-take vocal with my piano. It wasn’t mastered or anything, she stated. So far, “Prove Your Value” has been her most popular song to date.
In 2023, the legendary Steve Cropper accompanied Toland on her single “I Want to See You Again.” I wanted to know how that came about.
She explained, “His wife, Angel Cropper, is a very good friend of mine. She was my first friend when I moved to Nashville. Their family has been instrumental, no pun intended, in my life here. And I go to church with her every Sunday. And she’s been a guardian angel in so many words in my life.”
That year, she released her debut EP, The Moon Will Pass By. The four-song EP was recorded at the famed RCA Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and blends 90’s country and seductive soul music. It captures the earthiness and electricity of classic country music with staple instruments like the pedal steel guitar.
This year, Toland released three 90s covers, including Faith Hill’s honest “It Matters to Me,” Tracy Bird’s playful “Watermelon Crawl,” and a brilliant cover of Trisha Yearwood’s “Walkaway Joe.”
She also released her original tongue-in-cheek song, “(I’m Just A) Wino,” which is another country tune that blames the ex for the reason she drinks too much.
Now Toland’s latest song, “Nashville Numbers,” is a response to Morgan Wallen’s “Tennessee Numbers.” It is similar in the way that Kitty Wells responded to the Hank Thompson hit “The Wild Side of Life” with her song, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”
Wallen laments that the girl won’t take a call from the 865 area code (Knoxville), and Toland explains why she won’t take his call. The lyrics When I see the 615/ It takes me back to the time we were lovers/ And those Tennessee nights that I thought would last forever/ Now you’re just another one of those Nashville numbers/ You played me on and on/ Like a fool I played along… make it clear why she won’t answer his call.
Written alongside Nashville greats Justin Love and Steve O’Brien, the song is also a homage to Music City’s widely used eponymous Nashville Number System, on which Toland learned to play.
Now, the official studio video of “Nashville Numbers” is out, and it’s a great reminder of why so many flock to Music City to write and record music. The song, the setting, and the sentiment are splendid.
Toland captures the essence of powerful, leading female country artists by fusing classic country sounds with contemporary sensibilities. If you want to hear the nostalgic sound of country music from the late 90s and early 2000s but with a more modern twist, she is the artist for you.
You can follow Toland on her website, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, TikTok, and all streaming services.
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Bethany Bowman is a freelance entertainment writer. You can follow her blog, Facebook, Instagram, and X.
