By Gwen Fries, Adams Papers

New England’s son Noah Kahan makes his triumphant return to Fenway Park this week, including an 11 July show on the birthday of John Quincy Adams. Kahan’s works have long reminded me of JQA but none moreso than Kahan’s most recent album, The Great Divide, an intensely personal look at life in a New England family.

“You’re home, and I’m so grateful you are. Because you’re going to fix it; you’re going to patch it up. Honey, we’re fragile. You’ve always been so tough.”
—American Cars

I’ve already written at length about JQA’s close relationship with his sister, Nabby. Nabby was the family’s regulating ballast. Endlessly tender and patient, she was a bedrock for Adams. This tribute Kahan wrote for his sister couldn’t be more apt.

“I’m cursing every exit sign and my devotion to hoping you might change your mind and to hating you for going.”
—Downfall

It may seem strange to choose a song with the chorus “I’ll keep rooting for your downfall” as the one to sum up a marriage, but John Quincy’s relationship with his wife, Louisa Catherine, was anything but straightforward. Two strong but opposing personalities, they had trouble living together and even more trouble living apart. Louisa had no appetite for public life, and her husband’s return to Congress after losing his presidential bid was one of the most strained moments of their marriage. (“Staying Still” is also a JQA/LCA anthem!)

“I wish you could know me, and I wish I could know you much more sometimes
Wish I could do nothing with you, sit in the yard while the day dies.”
—Willing and Able

This album is one long run of songs written for the three Adams brothers—JQA, Charles, and Thomas. An elder brother who was handpicked by George Washington for diplomatic service would hardly encourage fraternal affection, particularly as the younger boys failed to keep up academically and professionally (and struggled with alcohol abuse). Yet John Quincy never stopped adoring his brothers, chiseling away at the wall between them with job offers and much-needed funds.

“I’m an astronaut; you’re the moon. I stare at you, I sing to you, I circle you.”
—Orbiter

In my opinion, the true north of JQA’s life was his mother, Abigail. This track Kahan wrote for his mother perfectly encapsulates their relationship. JQA’s wife, Louisa Catherine, understood this relationship well, reflecting that her mother-in-law was “the guiding Planet around which all revolved.”

“Everybody’s asleep, let’s talk about him. Talk about high school, talk about death
Where do we go when we die? I wouldn’t mind right here. No, I wouldn’t mind at all.”
—Dan

17 August 1826 found a grieving John Quincy Adams writing to his “dear friend and cousin” William Cranch about the loss of their fathers and “the memory of the Scenes of our childhood.” Cranch was born two years and one week after his cousin and remained one of the few constants of Adams’s life. The cousins went from running around the Massachusetts countryside together as small boys to serving the federal government in Washington, D.C. As Adams aged and outlived his parents, sisters, brothers, two sons and a daughter, his cousin William was always there to remember what everyone else had forgotten.

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