The Star Prairie Project Asks What It Takes to Thaw a Closed-Off Heart in Brand New Single
WI, UNITED STATES, August 24, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Star Prairie Project is the recording vehicle of Nolen R. Chew Jr., a songwriter from Star Prairie, Wisconsin, who built the project around writing original songs and collaborating with musicians and producers to turn them into finished records. Working with contributors from Los Angeles to London, Chew has developed a catalog that now stretches across ten studio albums and more than 100 songs. The name ties his hometown to a nod toward the Alan Parsons Project, while the music itself moves through folk, country, Americana, and several forms of rock.
Chew came to songwriting later in life. He first picked up a guitar at 51 with no musical background and quickly found himself more interested in rearranging chord progressions and writing his own lyrics than simply learning assigned songs. Before music, he spent 25 years in the Air Force working in nuclear operations and arms control, retiring in 2001. He now lives with his wife and their pets in a cabin on a lake in west-central Wisconsin, where gardening, long walks, and an open schedule leave plenty of room for writing. He might reach for the guitar in the morning or late at night, looking over the lake or sitting by the fire. The catalog has accumulated more than 15 million Spotify streams, while the act has appeared on The David Bowers Awards podcast and been recognized as an upcoming artist in Vents Magazine and Buzz Music Magazine. Chew describes the music as “unique but familiar” and “classic yet original,” with influences ranging from the Beatles and Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Coldplay, the Black Keys and Greta Van Fleet.
“To Warm a Cold Heart” began during one of Chew’s long walks along a lake road. He found himself thinking about people with closed minds and cold hearts, and how the two might require different kinds of change. “Closed minds can be open with new information, but how can you warm up a cold heart?” he recalls. That question became the foundation of the song. Its lyrics return to trust, empathy, kindness and the possibility of starting over, asking what might reach someone who has become emotionally distant. The closing section leans toward love and hope as ways of restoring connection.
The accompanying video was created and produced by Pedro Salvador and Pedro Martinho and filmed in Portugal. Its concept stays close to the recording process, showing the group setting up and working together on the song. Rather than building a separate narrative, it keeps the focus on the people behind the recording and their interaction in the room. Chew is now focused on promoting the current album while continuing to develop new material. He and Rudiger have already completed a twelve-song Americana album drawn from more than seven years of working together, giving the recording project another full collection ready to follow.
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Andrew Gesner
HIP Video Promo
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