Born and raised in Lubbock and the Hill Country of Texas, Noel has traveled the world singing his songs and playing a self-built acoustic guitar on world stages from Nashville, TN, Austin, TX, California, Ireland, Spain, and the U.K. Noel has co-written songs with David Olney, Guy Clark, Richard Dobson, Becky Warren, John Scott Sherrill, and Shawn Camp. His songs have been recorded by Sarah Borges, Sunny Sweeney, and Guy Clark.
Noel picked up the guitar around age nine...
You Only Live Always (2024)
Sketches of South Central Texas (2015)
Blue, Blue, Blue (2024)
Is That So Much To Ask (2014)
"In a city that boasts a huge number of talented singer-songwriters, Noel McKay stands tall among artists who are taking the music of forebears like Guy Clark into the future."
– Nashville Scene,
Writer’s Choice for Best Singer/Songwriter 2024 by Edd Hurt.
After that news, the Texan songwriter could go sit in the sun like a lizard, but not Noel; he kept writing the song he was chasing. The song comes first before coffee, a shower, and the sunset.
Noel is a master musical storyteller who can bottle up time, people, and locations from the exotic to the mundane with wit and wisdom. Born in Texas, he’s toured the world, co-wrote with David Olney and Guy Clark, and now lives part-time in Spain. After 20 years of befriending Guy Clark, Noel still carries and plays the handmade acoustic guitar they built. He has released four solo albums, including 2024’s You Only Live Always, which has been praised as “a beautiful self-portrait” by Americana Highways.
The press loves Noel; he’s appeared in The Austin Chronicle, The New York Times, No Depression, Glide, Americana Highways, and The Alternate Root. His radio airplay worldwide has ranged from WMOT in Nashville, WXPN in Philadelphia, WDVX in Knoxville, TN, Radio Bristol in VA, and various European stations.
Noel has shared the stage with the best of the best: David Olney, Sunny Sweeney, Guy Clark, and Whitney Rose. Some of the stages and venues over the years have been the 30A Songwriters Festival (Destin, FL), Opelika Songwriters Festival (Opelika, AL), Westport Bluegrass Festival (Ireland), Riquela Club (Spain), Hill Country BBQ (Washington, DC), HolaNola Festival (Spain), Levon Helm Studios (Woodstock, NY), Gruene Hall (Austin, TX), and The Station Inn and The Bluebird Café (Nashville, TN) and many more. He toured Florida with the late great David Olney a month before he died in January 2020.
As a live performer, whether Noel is solo or with a backup band of misfits, he calls The Galician Cowboys; he is a rare kind of songwriter who delivers the song because the song is king.
General Contact: Jill Kettles – Miss Jill PR – Jill@missjillpr.com – 404-213-8542