An Emerson College Senior Traveled Across Massachusetts with His Ukulele to Record a Song
Noah Wisch recorded each of the 351 notes in a song he composed in a different Bay State municipality.
The Little Building at Emerson College. / Photo by Alex Lau
The internet has earned its bad reputation. It’s filled with obnoxious trolls, political news you just don’t want to see, and creepy targeted ads to lure you and your wallet into buying that sweater you left lingering in online shopping cart purgatory.
But sometimes, for all its ills, the web brings us a sparkly gem in the form of a college student and his ukulele.
From Abington to Yarmouth, Massachusetts is home to 351 cities and towns, and Emerson senior Noah Wisch has visited every last one of them with his stringed accompaniment. Wisch, whose well-named YouTube channel BananaCactus Ukulele boasts over 2,500 subscribers, traversed the Bay State to create a special song worthy of the Commonwealth’s grandeur, according to Dig Boston.
To accomplish the task, Wisch composed a song exactly 351 notes long and then went on an epic road trip to play one tone in each municipality across Massachusetts. The result isn’t some cheesy ode to the seashore or to Dunkin’, but rather, a melody (punctuated with some traffic noises) that showcases the charm of the entire state.
Wisch, a Stow native, told the Dig that he first had the idea for the song during a 2015 cross-country road trip. He said that being from a town that some people have never heard of motivated him to explore the other tiny communities in Massachusetts that are beloved by residents but perhaps fly a bit under the radar.
“There are people tucked into every tiny corner of the state,” Wisch said. “I think that’s one of the many beauties of Massachusetts—from the big cities to the tiny farm towns, there’s a place for everyone to feel at home.”
Check out Wisch’s work here:
