From the sea cliffs of Big Sur and the superbloom of Carrizo Plain, to the sacred site of Painted Rock and the poppies of Antelope Valley, Noach Tangeras has been drawing musical inspiration from natural wonders for over a decade.
This influence has led Tangeras to the doorsteps of the U.S. government, playing her music at a rally to save Carrizo Plain National Monument in San Luis Obispo County. Congressman Salud Carbajal took note of her work and even proposed showing it to President Donald Trump.
While she has to be subtle about politics in her music and performances, “I do have objectives to protect our park lands, and I can subtly say that I would like to protect our park lands,” she said.
Performing in a politically diverse area, Tangeras tries to avoid political division while also focusing on subjects she finds important, such as environmental protection, an interest she attributes to her background in biology.
Tangeras got her feet wet playing coffeehouse shows while earning her bachelor’s degree in marine biology. After college, she spent four summer seasons in Alaska working on boats and cutting her teeth “playing music in the bar at night,” as she said.
Eventually, she moved to SLO County, working as a fisheries biologist in Morro Bay for a private contractor, collecting data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and playing gigs. When the marine biology work dried up, she dedicated herself full-time to music.
Her road to becoming a professional musician actually started long before she made that career shift over a decade ago.
An Indiana native and the “black sheep” in a musical family, with her father being a Norwegian bluesman, her mother a choir singer and her sister an oboist in symphonies, Tangeras first started playing guitar in 2004.
While taking lessons her freshman year of college in Maine, she was turned onto the music of Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Dolly Parton and Grace Slick, all of which comes through in her own playing.
“My more country-sounding songs could pass for some Dolly. But then I have this big Janis influence… I definitely have some originals that are very inspired by Janis; got that bluesy, raspy, gritty sound to it,” said Tangeras.
Often playing three or four days in a row over the weekend, Tangeras keeps a busy schedule of performances. She does so by splitting her time between solo, acoustic and full-band shows, where she is joined by Jeremy Lemen on bass, Adam McAlexander on lead guitar, and Luis Monge on drums, to form The Noach Tangeras Band, with the occasional addition of Sarah Blick on fiddle.
From dance covers and country standards to originals, Tangeras plays to the request of the venue. Her business has grown organically, centered around making connections, shaking hands, and handing out her card.
Equating a live performance to feeling like she’s “on top of the world,” it’s these audience connections that Tangeras finds valuable in the music world: “…to be seen and be heard, that’s a big thing,” she said. “To have what’s important to you be expressed to others and have other people feel the same.”
In 2023, she even performed overseas. Playing guitar, with her sister on oboe, her father on vocals, and her father’s cousin on piano, they formed the proverbial “family band” and performed at her father’s hometown festival in Southern Norway, along with their family reunion.
However, the music business hasn’t always been flowers and beaches, especially with COVID throwing a curveball at the industry in recent years.
With the ups and downs of the pandemic still reverberating, Tangeras remains motivated by the act of playing music: “My truest form of human expression, really, is music… I feel like it’s a universal language that you don’t have to know what’s being said to understand,” she said. “Like, somehow I can fully express myself in a song that I can’t otherwise do in any other way.”
This genuine mentality throughout her career has paid off, resulting not only in continued business but also in four New Times Music Awards.
In 2015, her band came in second in the Blues-R&B category for “Walking Out Your Door.” This was followed in 2016 by “Big Sur,” which took first in the country-Americana-folk category and second in the Best Songwriter category.
The first-place victory led to a performance at the Fremont Theater. “Lots of legends have played on that stage, and I’ve seen legends play on that stage,” said Tangeras, who remembers seeing the late Kris Kristofferson perform there.
In 2024, her band placed second in country-Americana-folk for “Put Me On A Train.” With a “Carrizo Plain” music video slated for release soon, and a probable four-track EP in the works, Tangeras may have more awards in store.
However, with nearly three hours of original, unrecorded and unreleased music in her back pocket, Tangeras’s current focus is recording and distributing her work beyond the stage.
She recently struck a deal with Heavy Crush Records, a local independent label on a lavender farm in Avila Beach.
Guided by Hunter Nakazono as co-producer and studio musician, The Noach Tangeras Band will be collaborating with other bands on the label, including Rachel Santa Cruz on backup vocals. Playfully nicknamed “Choir Rachel,” she is well known in the community for her harmonization abilities.
Nonetheless, Tangeras’s plan remains the same: keep playing shows, writing songs, recording music and sticking to what she loves most. “I keep saying: ‘you’re gonna have to take the guitar out of my cold, dead hands before I quit,’” she said.
The Noach Tangeras Band’s music, upcoming shows and info can be found at noachtangerasband.net.
