Noah Guthrie Is Inspired by Honesty of Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell

Noah Guthrie exploded onto the YouTube cover scene in 2010, which was closely followed by a stint on a little show you may have heard of called Glee. While he's made a name covering by LMFAO, Rihanna, Ed Sheeran and Adele, he's now making his way into the world of Americana originals — riding a wave of influence from Chris Stapleton and Jason Isbell.

Guthrie holds the revered singers in high regard, to say the least. "Honestly, I just think they're two of the best songwriters of our time now," he raves. "Jason Isbell, I can't listen to any of his records without just being torn apart.

It's their honesty in particular that Guthrie is so drawn to, citing Isbell's track "Something More Than Free" as a song that changed everything for him as a songwriter. "It's very inspiring to see two artists that are so okay with being honest, and brutally honest sometimes, with their fans and with themselves in their songwriting," Guthrie continues. "As soon as I heard 'Something More Than Free' from Jason Isbell, it just kind of changed my perspective on songwriting. Just fantastic stuff."

As he gears up for the release of his own album, The Valley, Guthrie is not letting those inspirations goes to waste. He's trying to adopt the rawness of their songwriting style. He self-produced The Valley with his brother, Ian, following his own model while going for the "less is more" approach to find simplicity and remain humble.

"We definitely wanted the not really bare bones sound, but just less is more and that definitely went into production and that was totally from Chris Stapleton and Jason Isbell," Guthrie describes of his solo project. "I just think it's such a beautiful way to present songwriting now."

The Valley drops on Friday (June 23).

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