Waylon Wyatt - Dustpiles World Tour at Variety Playhouse

What started as a guitar, a camera and a dream has now become a career for 18-year-old Noah James from Prairieville, Louisiana. Growing up in a house full of musicians, his dad being a professional jazz player, he always knew he had a passion for music. But after experimenting with different genres and trying to find his voice, James took to TikTok to share his love. “I had never been on social media before,” James said. “Putting my face out there for everybody to see and it was also the same time that I was trying to find my voice so I wasn’t the best when I started and that’s always the scary part,” he added. He followed through, though. He found country artists that fit his voice and style, one of which being Zach Bryan, who Noah says is his biggest inspiration. He even covered Zach Bryan’s song “Pink Skies,” which now has close to 32 million views. “It made me want to keep going. I got like a thousand views and then hundreds of thousands, and when I got my first million, it was insane,” James said. Noah’s account @noahjamesofficial now sits at 296,000 followers and has 8.5 million likes. Somebody took notice of this traction. In December 2024, he got signed to Santa Ana/Sony Music Records based in Nashville, an honor that came sooner than expected. “I was prepared to get signed maybe five years from now but it’s been absolutely amazing. Everyone in the label is absolutely amazing and welcomed me with open arms and pretty much when I got signed, we got the ball rolling,” James said. As soon as he got to Nashville, Noah recorded four songs that he’s been writing for the past year. Those songs led up to his debut EP The Tracks, which was released in August 2025 and features six songs.