Noeline Hofmann is still glowing when we catch up with her at home in Bow Island, Alberta. Just days earlier the 21-year-old lived her dream—she stepped into the iconic wooden circle to perform on the Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville.
“Playing the Opry has been my longest living dream, since I was a really little kid. It’s always been a North Star dream,” she says, sitting outside in the sun.
If we rewind to a mere two years ago, Hofmann was working on a ranch in Manitoba, fixing fences and raking hay.
“It sounds made-up but truly the fantasy of playing the Grand Ole Opry got me through days working on the ranch. I would pretend that the work I was doing was directly related to my dream of playing country music. That really helped me on tough days.”
In retrospect, she says, it was directly related. “That time in my life wrote me so many songs and saved up some money that allowed me to put all my cards on the table and really go for it.”
Hofmann performed her two hits, “Lightning in July (Prairie Fire)” and “Purple Gas” at the Opry. Old Crow Medicine Show and The Oak Ridge Boys also played that night.
“I haven’t really had a chance to catch my breath since it happened but man, it was completely surreal,” she says.
Of her two songs, “Purple Gas” is already a major part of her story. She had left the Manitoba ranch in October 2022 and started playing every open mic and bar show she could find.
Then, less than a year later, her phone started blowing up with messages. Country music star Zach Bryan had discovered “Purple Gas” and posted online about her song. Next thing she knew, she was in Oklahoma, recording a video for Bryan’s Belting Bronco series on YouTube. Ultimately she and Bryan recorded a duet and he included it on his next album, released this July.
“I was already working towards this happening but definitely my life was flipped upside down but for the better,” she says. “It was a part of my vision. I just never could have expected how it would happen.”
Almost overnight the American music industry started calling, she says.
“I got my team built out and by the middle of May I was touring and I’ve been touring since. My life has completely changed and it was definitely catalyzed by Zach.”
The day after we talked, Hofmann was launching on tour, supporting artists including Colter Wall, Wyatt Flores and Shane Smith and The Saints.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun, maybe too much fun, but I’m very honoured and humbled, truly, to be on the tour.”
When we talked, Hofmann’s debut EP, Purple Gas, was just about to come out. It’s out now.
“I’m so excited for it to come out,” she says. “We waited for a long time, we had lots of bumps in the road and had to change our plans many times but it’s all been for the better and that’s been the magic of it.”
Learn more about Noeline Hofmann by checking out her website.
“August,” Hofmann’s latest single from Purple Gas:
