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Nashville Millennium is a culmination of songs that led me to, or was written in, Nashville, Tennessee.

My Nashville story. Like so many other Nashville bound artists, I lived broke and sometimes in cheap hotels, rented rooms and split the rent. I worked a few low paying, frustrating dead end jobs, and studied and learned about the music industry from 1997 to 2005. I’d sold off everything I could to make the long trip from Santa Fe, New Mexico. My only possessions were my deceased father’s Nissan pick-up truck with a solid rusted left fender, my clothes, three guitars, and an old P.A. system given to me by David Salazar for taking care of his horses. The Nissan and the guitars would eventually get stolen. I was informed not even half way to Nashville that my arranged place to stay was no longer available. That was some tough news leaving me homeless before I even areived. Although the change was devastating to my plan, I made a choice to keep going, rather than turn back and try again later. I knew this was something I had to do and I’d already sold off everything I owned to get there.

I arrived in Nashville just before dusk with seventy three dollars left. I rented a room across from the Broken Spoke songwriter lounge in a rough motel surrounded by a chain link fence. I walked to the nearby Taco Bell for dinner and then bought a six pack of beer at the convenience store across the street with my last dollars. A few hours later, after a couple of beers and pondering my inevitable homelessness the next day, I decided to take my guitar and play next door at the Broken Spoke, after all, that’s why I went to Nashville. There wasn’t an opportunity for me to play, so I just sat at a table and helped a pretty waitress wrap silverware in napkins. Terri found a place for me to stay and saved me. I’ll always think of her as my Nashville angel. Her boyfriend, Ransom,  let me rent a room and always had a smile.

The next few years were rough, but I survived.  A few more years and I eventually got married to Teresa at our home in East Nashville and became a father to Baby Jay. I reconstructed a garage into a recording studio and built a reputation as a musician and an engineer . I earned my honorary rap name, ‘Thug Nasty’. Many albums, demos, and underground rap mix tapes were created at my PollyDog Recording studio after my regular day job hours and on the weekends, including the 2003 collaboration album, ‘Want Too Much’ by The L.G.’s, but ironically very little of my own deeply personal music. I started a kids album, ‘Bugs for Dinner’, in the PollyDog studio and eventually finished it in the Shed of Tuff studio in Texas, six years later in 2008. My next album, Origins, would be released eleven years later in 2019.

Five years after the turn of the century, I moved back to the Austin area to build a landscaping business and a family. I had every intention to keep writing and performing, but things didn’t work out that way. Instead, I suffered through many years of alcoholism and depression that originated in my childhood. I was drinking whiskey, beer, and tequila at eight years old. I’m thankful I can say I’m now sober and on the other side of those years and I’m back to writing and recording my music. Music was a big part of my recovery. I don’t think I would have made it without music.

Nashville Millennium is the second album in a series of the music written in my earlier days. The cover design that resembles a paper airplane, is actually a line connecting the dots on a map from all the towns in which I played and developed my music. Roswell and Santa Fe, New Mexico, Lubbock and Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee. I didn’t include Tempe, Arizona since I never performed there, but I did buy my twelve string on Mill Avenue and learn to play it in the wee hours inside the acoustic tile walls of the apartment complex laundry room. I chose the twelve string for it’s difficulty.

All the instruments (Drums, Bass, Acoustic Guitars, Electric Guitars, Piano, and Synthesizer Keyboards) are played by me, with a few exceptions featuring Lee Catoe, Nathaniel Allen, and David Edwards. Vocals and Backup harmonies are also me with the exception of one song, which subtly features Teresa in the background harmony. And all of the recording, mixing, and mastering is done by me in my ‘Shed of Tuff’ studio in Spicewood, Texas under the artificial record label, Rain Day Records. This album has reincarnated old lo-fi tracks recorded from cassette tape recorders and 4-track recorders and even a few loops. It covers the entire evolution of my recording equipment over the years. It’s very inconsistent, which makes it my concept album.

Nashville Millennium Song Stories and Lyrics

Why Did She Cry

The first time I played the song, my friend Mark was doing an open mic showcase in a bar on Broadway in Nashville and asked me to tag along. We worked up about four songs and did the show. We played ‘Why Did She Cry’ as the last one in the short set and got absolutely no response from the audience. Usually the songwriter filled crowd would at least courtesy clap, but we got nothing. I noticed everyone was busy talking and just not paying attention anymore. It wasn’t the first time. No big deal. I assumed I was not impressing anyone with my music, as usual, and was about to leave unceremoniously.

As I packed up my guitar and was saying so long to my friend, who was always much better at being social, a square jawed, sandy blonde haired, bohemian type guy stopped me. He introduced himself and said he enjoyed the songs. He introduced me to his girlfriend and his other friends as well and invited me to come out to a barn style monthly jamboree about sixty miles outside of town. He said they only invited a select few people so that they could help out and maybe develop their talent. They kept it exclusive. If you’ve ever seen the movie, ‘The thing called love’, it’s exactly like the private party they have on a farm where some of the big music producers and label representatives find talent. It was a possible beginning to my music career.

Unfortunately, it was during the work week and I didn’t have enough money for gas, so I just never made it out there. I’ve never understood how so many people get by without a job and get to do fun things on the weekdays. I’ve noticed that they also keep it a secret. I never saw that guy again and after a few months his number was changed. I assume he was off to New York or L.A. or somewhere else super cool.

The song was written about a girl I took to a prom. I dated her in Lubbock, then she moved to east Texas while I moved to northern New Mexico. After many hours of a long distance relationship through the 1-800 line at the hotel where I worked as a clerk, I decided to road trip with my friend over 700 miles to take her to her high school prom. My friend stayed in the hotel while she and I had dinner. We danced, we attended the prom and we even kissed a little. It was all going great, I thought, until she suddenly started crying. I promise I wasn’t doing anything evil, I can only speculate she was just emotional and maybe confused. So we stopped the romantic stuff and just talked for hours under the moonlight next to a creek. Everything seemed fine again, but when I took her home, she left without a word. Forever. I’m still confused and haunted by the memory of that night because I still just don’t understand what went wrong.

It’s strange that so many years have passed and I still think about that night. I regret that maybe I got caught up in having such a good time that didn’t I always consider her feelings first. I regret that I was drinking when she wasn’t. I regret that I was so addicted to nicotine that I always had tobacco in my mouth, always. And I regret that we never able to discuss what actually happened so we could both improve ourselves. This song is my sincere apology to her and an acknowledgement of the mystery of what went wrong.

Why Did She Cry – Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

Feeling heavy hearted as I drove through her hometown
So much has changed since I was around
Hmmm, so much has changed since I was around

Stopped to look in every cranny and nook to see if she was in town
She was nowhere to be found
Hmm you were nowhere to be found

(chorus)
So why did she cry?
Why did she cry?
Oh Why did she cry?
Why did you cry?

Well I don’t regret too many things but there’s one thing that I do
That letter that I sent to her
Hmm, that letter that I sent to you

I said a lot of things I didn’t really mean
I was just trying to get to you
Didn’t mean to be such a fool
Didn’t mean to make you blue

(chorus)
So why did she cry?
Why did she cry?
Oh, why did she cry?
Why did you cry?

(Break)

Lord, it must’ve been nine years ago
Just what happened I still don’t know
Now what’d I do to her soul?
Hmmm, what’d I do to your soul?

Now I ain’t trying to restart that fire
I don’t feel like we said goodbye
Said I loved her when she left
Hmmm, I said I loved you when you left

(chorus) x 2
So why did she cry?
Why did she cry?
Oh why did she cry?
Why did you cry?

Why did she cry?
Did you cry
Cry

Valley of the Fools
A friend was having marital problems. His wife was home with their baby while he worked at a high end restaurant in the evenings and got home late at night. He was a notorious schmoozer and socialite so he often went to the after hours bars and partied sometimes all night. Of course, this is never good for a wife and a new mom. The song is about going to the bar to drink to forget your problems when going to the bar is actually the problem. It’s a horrible cycle that I am very guilty of myself, although the song was originally inspired by my buddy.

Valley of the Fools- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

Sometimes you want to run
Sometimes you want to stay
But it don’t matter one way or the other
You’ll never get away

She got your mind confused
Don’t know up from down
Tell her you got news
There’ll come a day when you ain’t around

(chorus)
Gonna take a ride
Down to the valley
Try to free your mind
Down in the valley of the fools

Now they got wine
And they got booze
And plenty of useless things
A fool can use

Set your mind free
From all your trouble
One sip of the water and you might forget her
Down in the valley of the fools

(chorus)

Fools are lined up from one end to the other
Taking turns spittin’ blues
You can’t tell one story from another
Down in the valley of the fools

(chorus)

Down in the valley of the fools
Down in the valley of the fools
Down in the valley of the fools

Just Drive Away is partly influenced by my lost and wandering teenage years. It seemed I was always driving away in those years, just driving away from town to town, trying to find the greener grass. It’s also a story about making decisions and avoiding trouble. And it’s about thinking we want something until we get it, then realizing how good we had it before, and there’s no going back.

Just Drive Away – Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

She wishes she was living on the wild side
Never looking back
But she’s stuck here in the little town
On a dead end cul de sac
And every day she dreams of the city lights
It won’t be long she’ll hop in that old Chevrolet and drive

(Chorus)
Just drive away
Drive away

Seventeen, it’s a long road
Before you find yourself
The highway is full of faces
Few of any help
And it’s easy to get caught up in a losing game
But you can always, always just drive away

(Chorus)

And if you never did think you’d wind up a trailer park queen
Four dirty kids and a broken down washing machine
And all you ever had to do was hop in that old Chevrolet
Kick on the starter, drop it in a gear and drive away

(Chorus)

She wishes she was living the simple life
Taking it day by day
But she’s stuck here in the big town
With another one on the way
And every day she dreams
Of her little town
Yeah every day of her life she dreams
Of her little town

Short Time Gone was written in a hotel room in Nashville after my girlfriend left to go back to college.  It wasn’t odd to be alone or even lonely, but strange to have our separated lives divide us up.

On the beginning and end of the song, I used a recording of my Uncle Bob Stephens from a 78 speed, shellac record from the Nineteen Forties. He was always interested in music, and although most likely unimpressed with my talent in the beginning, he still seemed supportive. He was one of the first few people to listen to my weak, stage frightened, mumbling songs and be kind enough to not tell me to give it up.

Short Time Gone – Radio Intro Bob Stephens  from 1948- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

By now she’s into Arkansas
And the weatherman says the rain ain’t gonna end
She ain’t been gone five hours
And already I’m missing

The satellite picture on the TV
Shows the storm from there to here
And I know it sounds silly
But I could swear that storm is shaped just like a giant tear

It’s been a long time coming
And a short time gone

Now the rain in Oklahoma is reaching record highs
And she’s closer now to Texas than the state we said goodbye
I can’t worry about the weather anymore
Whether she will or whether she won’t
Come back to me once more

It’s been a long time coming
And a short time gone

I got room one seven nine all to myself
But her lingering perfume left such a sweet, sweet smell
Weatherman says the Texas skies are now clear
Well those clouds must be in Tennessee, crying Texas’ tears

It’s been a long time coming
And a short time gone

One more for the Woman was written while I lived in Santa Fe. My girlfriend pointed out that most all of my songs were generally sad and brought up some discouraging moments. The chorus was inspired by waiting for her to return and visit from College on Spring Break. It has been rumored that a friend was playing this song for years without giving me the writer credit. I just assumed if it was good enough to steal, it was a good enough for the album. Hopefully he sang it with the verse I omitted since it wasn’t very good.

One More for the Woman – Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

Play one more for the woman
Cause’ she ain’t heard the right one yet
One more for the woman
One she’ll never forget

So many times the same old songs
Go back to her in her mind
Just play one song
That won’t recall the hard times

Now it’s early in the morning
And I woke up thinking of her sweet face
And I miss the early mornings
Waking up in such sweet ways

(chorus)

So when the spring comes
I’ll be here waiting on you
And we’ll make sweet love
Like no lovers ever knew

One more for the woman
One song for all the good times
And mention something of her sweet ways
And please mention that she’s mine

Love Like This was written as a wedding song for my friends, Mark and Katrina. She was a trained Ballerina and he was a culinary host and aspiring songwriter. I pictured her dancing against the Santa Fe sunset when I wrote it. Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t last. I’m hoping the song isn’t the curse and will be used again for someone else’s love song. If everyone that hears the song gets divorced, then I’ll know it was probably the song.

Love Like This- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

You found it in your heart to find me there too
I promise to never stop loving you
You gave me the reasons to survive

You broke the spell of loneliness
Filled the spaces of emptiness
You gave more meaning to the moonlight in the sky

(chorus)

I dreamt your dancing silhouette
In a desert mountain red sunset
I did not want to come back to this world
I fell in love the dream we met
A part of me could forget
I knew then, that I’ve never been more sure
A love like this
Can only endure
A love like this
Can only endure

As we walk life hand in hand
And build stone castles in the sand
You’ll always know, I owe my life to you

This dream we have will never end
Won’t come back to the world again
Now moonlight casts a brighter shade of blue

(chorus)

A love like this
Can only endure

Mystery was written about a pretty girl I’d met for about three seconds and instantly fell in love with just as she instantly decided to avoid me. I asked her name and she replied, “Lucky” and I somehow attempted confidence and muttered the most out of character, stupidest, drunkest thing I’ve ever said, “No,… I’m lucky”. I don’t blame her one bit for immediately leaving. I was a little creepy and sloshed. But I got this poetic song with some big words out of it.

Mystery – Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

She is a mystery
A simplified complexity
Sent from somewhere to occupy my soul

She brings dreams into the face of reality
And twists perceptions of my beliefs
And all I know

Never was a light burned so bright
Never was real such a dream
I never believed I could ever touch starlight
She is a fantasy
She is a mystery

She’s got a name reserved for the lucky
And I wonder if I will ever get that far
She slipped out the door when no one was looking
And I’m betting she’s just trying to
Protect her heart

There never was a light shined so bright
Never was real such a dream
I never believed I could ever touch starlight
She is a fantasy
She is a mystery

She is a mystery
She is a fantasy

Love Like a Light was written on a road trip to a recording studio in Knoxville. It’s one of those songs that songwriters somehow separate the lyrics from reality while It’s happening. Sometimes songs just take over and the deeper meaning is secondary to the writer. Gordon Lightfoot said that he regrets singing ‘For Loving Me’ because it was a bad thing to say while he was married. I honestly don’t understand a lot of things about my song, but it was one of the first things I ever recorded and produced in Nashville. My friend, Jamie, suggested to flip the last line and my girlfriend, Teresa, said she was thinking the same thing, but didn’t say anything. So it got complicated and awkward at times.

Love like a Light – Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

I can’t be the man she wants me to be
Can’t feel the way she wants me to feel
It’s already gone on too long
Is it too late now to call it off?

Did I lead her on to the point of destruction?
She’s tearing herself up deep inside
And all I can do is watch from the sidelines
She wants to run but there ain’t no place to hide

(chorus)

And this game of love ain’t always just and fair
And this one’s like no other to compare
She can’t turn away what she feels inside
And I can’t turn on love just like a light

I’ve tried to make myself feel that way
But all I’m feeling now is an empty pain
She’s got to make her feelings disappear
And the sound of an empty heart is all I hear

(chorus)

I actually wrote Sunrise in California on the side of the highway at sunrise on the California state line in an 18 wheeler. When I was sixteen and living in hard times in Lubbock Texas, I was inspired by The Mamas and the Papas, California Dreamin’. I really wanted to go to Hollywood and try acting. Maybe I should have, but I never had the means, so I had to pull over and take a moment the first time I reached California.

My friend Lee Catoe is playing lead guitar and contributing the awesome back up vocals. He was always supportive of me and my music in Nashville. I really appreciate that.

Sunrise in California- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

Sunrise in California
Wheels stopped spinning for a while
Thirty minute nap by the roadside
And I got two hundred more miles

Should’ve came here when I was younger
When life was more simple and free
Well I guess I always wanted to
But I never had the means

(chorus)

Sunrise in California
Always wanted to see
The sun rise in California
It’s got what this foolish heart needs

Back when I was just sixteen
Crazy and full of dreams
Thought that out west lied destiny
And Hollywood had silver lined streets

But I never saw that horizon
Where the stars shoot up into the sky
If Holly would have seen this foolish heart
She would’ve eaten it alive

(chorus)

Dreaming of Carrie. This song is just about hoping for future love. I used the name Carrie because my brother and I used to make imaginary stories when we were very little kids about our future lives. His future girl was named Carrie. Mine was Julie, but he married Julie in real life, so I switched it and sang about Carrie. So it wasn’t weird, right? Lee Catoe is shredding some lead guitar on this one too.

Dreaming of Carrie – Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

When I was just a kid
I played a dream over in my sleep (just a little dream)
And there was a girl
I thought that someday I would meet (still believe)

(chorus)

I’m still dreaming of Carrie
I’m still searching for her
Am I blind, is she right in front of me
I’m still searching of Carrie

Life has been a hard road
Can’t seem to find just what I need (just want to play)
Life would be easier if I could permanently sleep (dream my life away)

(chorus)

I’d still be dreaming of Carrie
Still be searching for her
Am I blind, is she right in front of me
Still be searching for Carrie

And if someday I do find (I do find)
Will she mean so much to me
If suddenly I lose my mind (lose my mind)
Will she be there for me

(chorus)

Will I be dreaming of Carrie
Still be searching for her
Or am I blind, is she right in front of me
Will I be searching for Carrie

(chorus)

I’m still dreaming of Carrie
I’m still searching for her
Am I blind, is she right in front of me
I’m still searching of Carrie

I’m still searching for Carrie

Try Me If You Dare is really about all the girls that instantly know they don’t want to be with you and you just want to ask, “Could you just try me out? You might like me”. But, no. They never do. In reality, they already know they don’t like you.

My good friend Nathaniel Allen is possibly playing bass although we can’t really remember for sure. He was hanging around either way and his friendship made my days in Nashville so much better. Around the time of this recording, we started a collaboration album called ‘Want Too Much’ under the band name, The L.G.’s. with honorary members; guitar slinger, and wordsmith songwriter, Andy Logan, Front Man for the highly entertaining cover band Stretta Band, Jon Myers, and modern day classic country songwriter and power vocalist, Joe Tyler.

Try Me if You Dare – Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

I belong to the road
Long forgotten is my home
I been searching everywhere
Searching for half my share

I see you sitting there
Light is dancing on your hair
I see something I’ve seen before
You see it too but you’re not sure

(chorus)

Try me
If you dare
Try me
Hey, see if I care
I wanna take your heart somewhere

Chances are the end is near
Nothing’s gained if nothing’s fear
If it’s all just one big game
What does it matter if I refuse to change, refuse to change

Someone wins, someone will lose
It’s what they say our lives go through
Trouble is, it’s never fair
But you don’t know til you tale it there

(chorus)

Try me
If you dare
Try me
Hey, see if I care
I wanna take this road somewhere

Some can say they won
Love the Moon, Lust the Sun
Guaranteed a seat above
Take their last breath in the lap of Love

(chorus)

Try me
If you dare
Try me
Hey, see if I care
I wanna take your heart somewhere
I wanna take this road somewhere

French Fry Kids was also written on that trip to the Knoxville recording studio. The drummer in the band was unfortunately absent from the birth of his third child, Savannah, back in his home town, Santa Fe. It was a  scheduling conflict with the baby. They weren’t expecting the baby for another few weeks. Teresa, Shelly, Jamie, and Mark all sang along in a cabin outside of Sevierville, Tennessee as David and I wrote the song about his kids. I asked him what was special about his kids to start the writing session. He said,” My kids love french fries….actually, all kids love french fries”. It was a way to celebrate and keep him feeling closer to home. The original cassette tape deck recording is used on this album with David singing. I added my voice just to clarify the lyrics on the muddy tape recording.

French Fry Kids – Sidney Vance Stephens and David Edwards ©BMI

One of my kids can count to ten
He’s big and strong and he’s my little friend
He’s three years old just today
I wish I wasn’t so far away
So I could hang out with my French Fry kids

One of my kids has chubby little cheeks
They dimple up when he smiles at me
He snuggles with me when I’m at home
When I’m away I feel alone
And I just want to hang with my French Fry kids

(chorus)
I’m a French Fry daddy with French Fry kids
Making music with my guitar friends
Tennessee highway just turned my way
Taking me back home to see my kids
Oh I love my French Fry kids

Third one came just the other day
Prettiest little girl a daddy ever made
She’s a little angel from up above
I hope her little heart can take a whole lot of love
She’s the prettiest little French Fry that ever lived

(chorus)
Oh how I love my French Fry kids

Space Dance is a ridiculous instrumental recording on a 4-track cassette recorder. I bought it for attempting multi track recording in my east Nashville upstairs studio and non heated or air conditioned living space called Dog Hell. It inspired me to bum the money  from my mom to buy a computer with digital recording software. It was recorded in one take for each track using a cheap Yamaha keyboard and a mid grade Telecaster.

Space Danced- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

Alfalfa Hay (featuring Baby J). My oldest child, born in Nashville, is singing this shortly after my family and I moved back to Austin. When I was little, my brother once taught me the song on a long road trip, probably to annoy me. I don’t know the origin of the song but I think it’s used as a camp song with no definitive written version. My research led me to believe it is Public Domain. I chose to include the full versed song because Baby J is simply adorable.

Alfalfa Hay – Public Domain

Oh, the horse put its foot, put its foot on the ground
Oh, the horse put its foot, put its foot on the ground
Oh, the horse put its foot, put its foot on the ground
Ain’t this a heck of a song

Alfalfa hay, Alfalfa hay, Alfalfa hay, Alfalfa hay, Alfalfa hay
Same horse, second foot
(repeat) third, fourth, and fifth foot
(Be cute!)

‘Nashville Millennium’ Album Art