On her 2026 breakout hit, “Boston”, Stella Lefty borrows from Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” to detail a crush and the unpredictable ways people find love.
In Kahan’s tune, he grapples with a breakup while his emotions and the town he lives in keep him stuck in a relationship that no longer exists. Yet, in “Boston”, Lefty is far from home, and though she doesn’t think she’s emotionally ready to date again following her own breakup, she quickly finds herself smitten.
Behind the Lyrics
The pop-country track opens with the chorus, and the vocal melody from “Stick Season” will be familiar to those who know Kahan’s blockbuster title track. Beginning with the hook puts Kahan’s earworm in the listener’s mind. But it also reveals the plot’s ending, with the rest of the song explaining how we got here.
On a train back to Boston, and we’re jumping the gun,
And I’m telling you, baby, “This the part where I’d run.”
But I like it when you’re nice, like it when you’re nice to me.
In the opening verse, Lefty, who at the time was just emerging from a breakup, finds herself heading into another romantic entanglement.
Well, there I was,
Swearing I would never fall in love.
All my inhibitions walked out the second,
You said, “What’s up?”
So, here we go,
I’m throwing out the things I used to know.
I hate to admit it, but I guess I’m not better alone.
Nashville and an Obsession
Lefty wrote “Boston” in Nashville with Grace Enger, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, and Joe Reeves. (Noah Kahan also receives a writing credit for Lefty’s interpolation of Kahan’s “Stick Season”.)
The writing trip to Nashville also gave Lefty a good excuse to visit her crush. “We just started hanging out every day, and I was like obsessed,” she said. It worked out. “Boston” reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, and she found a new love.
I don’t know where it’s going, but don’t wanna go back,
And usually I’d leave right at the thought of that.
But I like it when you’re nice, like it when you’re nice to me.
Photo by Jamie Schramm/Billboard via Getty Images