Noah Kahan believes he would never have been the artist he is if his mother, Lauri Berkenkamp, hadn’t raised him the way she did.
The 29-year-old folk-pop musician contributed to the book What I learned from mom which includes essays by public figures including Kaia Gerber, Cindy Crawford, Chelsea Clinton, and more.
For his test, the Northern attitude Hitmaker wrote that one of the lessons he always learned from his mother is “You don’t have to like everyone, but you have to be kind”, according to People Magazine.
In an excerpt from the book, Kahan writes: “My mother’s belief in kindness was too firmly held to be disrupted by my challenges of ‘But what if they really sucked?’ and “Even if it’s a serial killer?” I knew what she meant. Kindness was a sacred pillar in her worldview and an undeniable constant in the way my mother approached the world.
THE Strawberry wine The singer continued to share that his mother did not discriminate in who she showed kindness to, and the same was true of his dream of becoming a musician.
Kahan added that his mother attended several sessions in which he sang out of tune, and drove him to and from open mic sessions at hotels and clubs where he could perfect his singing craft.
Berkenkamp not only nurtured her child’s passion for the craft, but she also helped him write.
Recalling a fond memory, Kahan wrote: “Sometimes, in my mid-teens, I would get stuck on a certain word, unable to figure out how to complete a rhyme while staying within the parameters of the larger lyrical concept. I would roll it around in my head and on my tongue for hours, literally banging my head against my desk until I couldn’t think anymore without my brain hurting. I would come down the stairs, distracted, and my mother would ask me what I was working on in my office. room. I would tell her I was stuck on a word to complete a rhyme, then I would explain the words to her Almost instantly, she would have the answer I like to think she enjoyed the exercise of writing “with me”, so to speak, that she appreciated the teaching, the help, the editing and the encouragement.
In addition to being a mom, Berkenkamp taught English at the University of Vermont and wrote 13 books, which allowed her to help Kahan write her songs.
“I could use the evidence of her love for me as a way to find my own love for what I was doing and use that belief as a reason to continue,” Kahan wrote of her mother.
The book What I learned from mom comes out March 31.
