“Deep down, me I always felt that this was my dream and my true path,” says Noeline Hoffman.
Two years ago, Hoffman was working on a ranch in Western Canada, having just seen her high school years derailed by the pandemic and all hopes of a career in music being shelved.
Today, she's in the midst of a major breakthrough, at a pace that's even more meteoric than 2024's level of meteoric rise. It's not even three months since her song 'Purple Gas' was released as a duet with Zach Bryan, after the country star revealed on social media and introduced her to the world, 21-year-old Hoffman is set to release her debut EP. also titled Purple Gason October 4.
Hoffman plays her shows with a commanding stage presence that combines charisma with confidence and sings with a commanding voice. Combine that with a matter-of-fact approach to songwriting, heavily influenced by the western music of Colter Wall and Charley Crockett, and it's hard to ignore Hoffman's potential in country music.
Her EP includes the title track, which refers to a special type of fuel, dyed purple, that Alberta farmers can use with a significant tax break. Farmers who are approved to use the fuel put special plates on their vehicles, indicating that they meet the requirements. He wrote it a year ago after spending a summer playing small bars on a regional music circuit. Hofmann says she thought the song was good at the time, but she was unprepared for how much and how quickly it would change her life.
“'Purple Gas' is about my experience growing up in rural Southern Alberta,” says Hoffman – originally from Bow Island in the province's southeast. “Some of the imagery in this song comes a lot from a ranch I was working on in Western Manitoba. I wrote this song almost exactly a year later to the day I quit that job. I was just feeling really emotional and reflective.”
Hofmann says she's barely connected to social media, so when Bryan noticed the song in the fall of 2023, she was largely unaware. While having breakfast on the morning of Canadian Thanksgiving, her phone started to light up.
“Zach Lane Bryan mentioned you in their story,” Hoffman recalled. “At that moment, I just dropped my phone.”
To illustrate the impact of this label on social media, consider that all of this has happened to Hoffman since the beginning of June: Bryan released “Purple Gas” as a duet with Hoffman and included the song on his album. The Great American Bar Scenewhich was released on July 4th. Hofmann joined Crockett and Wyatt Flores as an opening act on their respective headlining tours and booked a top support slot on upcoming tours with the Turnpike Troubadours, Colter Wall and Shane Smith and the Saints.
He released his solo version of “Purple Gas,” along with “Lightning in July (Prairie Fire),” as a single on August 9.
In late July, Hoffman celebrated her 21st birthday while on tour with Flores, who serenaded her during their show in Boise, Idaho. She covered a course in which she quickly befriended the sought-after Flores.
“When I first met Wyatt, we shared a very similar upbringing,” Hoffman says of Flores, who is two years her senior. “Coming from similar places in the world and experiencing this world of music – we have a lot of shared experiences and already understand a lot about each other. It makes me a little choked up to talk about it too much, because without knowing Wyatt well, I'm really proud of him.”
Hoffman cites both Wall and Crockett as her biggest influences, and her first tour came with the latter, who recruited her for his $10 Cowboy tour. “Charley Crockett is a hero of mine. I took it very seriously and took it as a huge responsibility to play with him,” he says. “But then there were so many moments – whether it was a one-liner from Charley backstage, or spending time talking to Taylor [Grace]his fiancee or his fans across the barrier hoping to catch a glimpse of his band on the way out. Time and time again, there were these jaw-dropping moments where I felt like I was walking through a Charley Crockett documentary.”
The prospect of playing with Crockett sparked at least one song that did Purple Gas. “Lightning in July (Prairie Fire)” is an uptempo country jam that fans have already started singing back to Hoffman at her shows. There's an energetic resistance akin to Martina McBride or Trisha Yearwood's memorable songs from the '90s, but Hofmann's perspective as a farm girl from western Canada, not yet 21 when she wrote it, shines through and the song perfectly matches the wave of emotion. country music currently sweeping the industry. When she sings, “Oh, they didn't see me coming, it must have happened overnight,” it's an adrenaline rush, but it's also timely for her career so far.
“It's a little self-contained,” says Hoffman. “It's knowing that you walk around with a loaded gun, but you're overlooked and underestimated. It's a “can't stop, won't stop” fight song. And I wrote it because I wanted energy. I wanted a country banger on the setlist.”
No matter where Hoffman's career takes her, she approaches it with caution. She's learning as she goes — playing off the old adage of taking a leap and building her wings on the way down — and she's doing her best to relish the sensation she's brought to her life and music.
“The whole year before that, I'd been pushing it hard on the regional stage, trying to get out there,” Hoffman says. “I never tried to play the social media game. The fact that all this happened to me is beyond my understanding.”
Josh Kratsmer is a journalist and author whose third book, Red Dirt Unpluggedis due out on December 13, 2024, via Back Lounge Publishing and is available for pre-order.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/noeline-hoffman-purple-gas-debut-zach-bryan-1235088967/