Viral hitmaker Noah Kahan has had to resort to social media, pleading with fans to stop stealing a road sign mentioned in one of his songs.
The folk pop artist – behind megahits such as number one song Stick Season, The Great Divide and Maine – is known for his songs regularly blowing up on TikTok, as well as climbing the top 50 charts with ease.
One of his songs, The View Between Villages, has sustained popularity among his large fanbase since it first came out in 2022.
But one of the lyrics is wreaking absolute havoc in the small town he grew up in after one of the roads got a special call-out in his lyrics. He’s not the first to popularise a location with a musical call out – we need only look to Taylor Swift’s Cornelia Street or The Beatles’ Penny Lane.
The Grammy-nominated artist spent his childhood in the small town of Strafford in Vermont, USA, and it heavily features in The View Between Villages, from his album Stick Season.
During one section of the song, he sings: ‘Passed Alger Brook Road, I’m over the bridge / A minute from home, but I feel so far from it’ which is a mainstay on TikTok.
It seems that in the four years since the song was first released, however, fans have made themselves a menace to local residents by repeatedly trying to steal the road sign.
In an impassioned and stern statement on social media, the singer-songwriter wrote: ‘To the fans travelling to the upper valley, I’ve been informed that the Alger Brook Road sign in Strafford has been repeatedly stolen.
‘It is a total disrespect to the folks who live on that road and a headache for the town to deal with. I used to live on Alger Brook.
‘I hate that because I put the road name in a song that some people have taken that as an invitation to disrupt the lives of the hardworking and kind folks who frequent it.’
Then, speaking to the people of Strafford encouraged them to get in touch for him to pay for any replacements and ‘discuss potential solutions’, apologising that they ‘have to deal with this’.
Finally, addressing his fans, he concluded: ‘This community has grown much larger and for that reason I feel I should again remind you all about how deeply protective I am over my family’s privacy, and of the sanctuary where I am from, please don’t disturb these places or people.’
The singer released his fourth studio album, The Great Divide, earlier this year and has since announced a sold-out world tour.