Clips from Poodie’s Roadhouse – original songs (YouTube link 10:09 video length)

Clips from Poodie’s Roadhouse – covers (YouTube link 03:58 video length)

Contact: 512-797-6281 or thebigsidmusic@gmail.com

Bio

Short Version

Sidney Stephens (The Big sid) is an original songwriter and recording artist based in Austin, Texas. His style is best described as Country, Rock, and Folk. (Americana)

The poetry of his lyrics often reflect his real life. The music is uniquely composed to solidify the meaning behind every song. A multi talented, well seasoned Producer, Songwriter, Composer, Engineer, Multi-instrumentalist, Recording Artist, and Photographer. He’s released five albums and seven singles to date with a wide variety of music styles available on all streaming platforms. He plays all the instruments on his recordings and produces the music in his very small home studio. He also designs the cover art and produces his own videos.

Introspective:

In an age where soulful, heartfelt, and real lyrics sometimes are set aside for the manufactured, copied, and contrived, Sidney, is as authentic a cloud in the sky.
The music he makes is authentic and honest. His writing and composition is as original and unique as can be in a world of constant influence.
He listens to the music internally, opting out of the depthless algorithms of the modern playlist. It’s a natural swell, rising from the emotions of reality and dreams.

Another Bio 2

Sidney’s writing style is sometimes comedic, sarcastic, and whimsical. Sometimes heavy, serious, and deep, and sometimes socially observant and irreverent. He often writes from his own introspective Blue collar to poverty life experience. But occasionally there’s an exploration in colorful imagination. When the ideas and melodies float from the ozone and oxygen in the atmosphere and somehow land in his ear and mind, he simply tries to keep a touch of subtle poetry and flair. He writes sometimes with intellect and complexity, open to artistic interpretation, and other times straightforward and easy to understand. His content is as fluid as his musical style of minor, major, and diminished chords, reflecting the shifting mood of all human nature. He’s influenced by all music and philosophy and holds no allegiance to any era or genre. He is unique in his work and influenced by all. He is as original as original is. He calls it “Countri-Cana-Blues-n-Roll” but its sound is most easily described as a tangled confection of Contemporary Country and Rock n Roll. Also known as Americana.

Sidney’s musical influence comes from many sources and styles but the sound of Texas is dominant. If geography has a sound, Texas is steeped in it. You can hear traces of Steve Earle, Steve Miller, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Tanya Tucker, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Joe Ely, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Christopher Cross, Robert Earl Keen, Jerry Jeff Walker, Sonny Curtis, Townes Van Zant, Michael Martin Murphey, Kris Kristofferson, Gary Clarke Jr., and Don Henley, just to name a few.

Short Backstory
“I find I have to omit some life experiences to not shock anyone or be accused of being hyperbolic. I would like to say I want to forget many moments in my life, but it would be an untruth. As insane as some of my darker stories are, I think they give me a unique perspective on life. Otherwise, what would be the use of it all. I have chosen to assign my pain and experience a noble purpose.
And as much as I wish I wrote happier lyrics to make my music more cheerful and celebratory, I rarely can. I can only write what I feel, from my own perspective. It may be the way I process my own self therapy. It may be my own healing. I only hope there are others that understand it and find it interesting or helpful somehow”.

“I do have more upbeat songs that are based on happier times, but like all of my life stories, there’s usually something disturbing attached to it-an occurrence that I accepted as normal only to later analyze and discover it was a little messed up. I try not to get distracted in my writings and stay on topic, but occasionally there’s something that doesn’t really make sense. Those are just for me. They can be puzzles for you, or just make up your own meaning”.

“My basic story starts before I was even born, with my dad working in radio and booking Willie in south Texas for a short time. Then relocating to Gallup, New Mexico (for some unknown reason) and living among the Navajo Reservation. As a child, I was a self proclaimed cowboy with a heavy Nicotine addiction. I was abused by a neighbor and was actively drinking whiskey and beer at eight years old. My family became more dysfunctional with violence and alcohol. We moved many times to different towns and houses until I was on my own at sixteen. I stayed with different friends but High School proved difficult to continue. Jobs were scarce for a misfit such as myself, but trouble was always readily available. I eventually reconnected with my mom to allow myself to further pursue my education, which somehow led me to music”.

“I have always loved making music and writing for as long as I can remember. Throughout my childhood, I played an antique, upright piano my mom had collected as a furniture piece. We moved it from town to town, house to house for years. Nobody played it but me. I traveled with a basic Yamaha keyboard and a small Peavey guitar amp during my wayward teen years. I taught myself guitar when I was twenty-three. Later, I picked up drums, bass, and taught myself how to record. Analog, then digital. I now almost always play all the instruments on my recordings.
I moved to Austin in 1993 to learn songwriting and performing. I went back to Santa Fe and started a band with friends. We performed at Michael Martin Murphey’s Westfest in 1995. I eventually moved to Nashville in 1996 to learn even more and moved back to Austin in 2005″.

“Back in Texas, I was working labor outdoors and raising a family. I was also drinking more and more, struggling with pain, depression, and the difficulty of life. I stopped writing and playing music altogether for over ten years.
But I eventually decided to reclaim my life and ended my addictions. Music was my inspiration and higher power. I began recording and releasing my music legacy, and after a few sober years, I started becoming more social and make connections and new friends”.

“Currently, I’m learning how to engage with people and be less awkward. I’m making mistakes but I’m learning. I’m playing drums and bass in local bands and getting out there. Music is now my rehab and my tiny studio is my church. I can’t wait to see what’s next”.

“I’m hoping to gain some notoriety and success since I am already fully dedicated to music, writing, and art.Realistically, the industry is oversaturated with artists and very few will find success. It makes no difference if an artist is pretending to be from the streets, or actually is from the streets. Bitterness, envy, and negativity have no place in success”.

“I have always believed in my abilities, my talent, and my drive. Even when others have not. Persistence is my biggest advantage. And my version of success is surprisingly minimal. So that’s good”.

The Long, Long, Storyful Backstory Story

As a child, Sidney was always tinkering on the antique family piano, composing music naturally. Although music was prevalent in his early childhood with his father in the radio industry, pursuing music was not actively encouraged. Due to a broken home, nothing much at all was encouraged and survival became the focus. At seventeen, his first instrument was a basic electronic keyboard given to him by his minimal engaging father for Christmas. He asked Sid where he would go off to? Riding his bike miles across town. It was to play the keyboards in a music store. It was a much appreciated gift. Sidney joined a band but soon realized the simple keyboard with a small practice amp proved ineffective.

Years before, when Sid was around twelve years old, he was handed a guitar from his older brother, after it came unglued and was coming apart. He said, “You want it?” Sidney instinctively tuned it to an open chord. He strummed along, using the separated wood face as a tremolo bar until it completely came apart at the seams. That would be his only experience with a guitar until he was twenty -one and bought an electric guitar that did not stay in tune. A few years later, he walked directly to a used Fender twelve string hanging on the wall in a music store on Mill Avenue in Tempe, Arizona. Something drew him to it. Although he was struggling to survive, he became slightly obsessed and returned later to buy it after leaving a small down payment, a leather jacket and his drivers license. He scrounged for cash, completly depleted his bank account, and wrote a questionable check for the difference.

Just about every moment he wasn’t working at the gas station on Mill Avenue or attending the graphic design school, he taught himself to play, figuring out chords, and utilizing a cassette tape of a college friend taking music production classes. He also used a tape of the band, Tesla, playing an live acoustic concert. He often enjoyed the solitude and echoing acoustics of the apartment complex laundry room while he washed his clothes at three in the morning.

At the beginning of his musical career, he was powerfully-cosmically-divinely inspired by a songwriter showcase in Santa Fe, New Mexico and soon after arrived in the hippie cowboy cosmos of Austin in the mid 1990’s. He acquired a 1963 camp trailer and had a tow hitch mounted to his grand-dad’s 1970 Dodge Dart. He worked at a gas station on the edge of Westlake and lived in the Shady Grove R.V. park on Barton Springs road (no longer there). A short while later he started working at the machine shop of South Austin Auto Supply (no longer there) tearing down engine blocks. He got an apartment on South Lamar (no longer there), just behind The Saxon Pub (still there!) and started playing open mics on Thursdays. Rusty Wier (no longer here) played later that night and became a friend and advocate of Sid’s songwriting and performing. Sidney was struggling to financially survive, often selling blood plasma for a meal and a few groceries. He developed his style, started a band, and played around Austin for a few years, creating a small following, then went back to Santa Fe to re-group. He was making plans to head to Nashville, Tennessee and subsequently started a band with friends. ‘Stephens and Steele’ played Michael Martin Murphy’s Westfest concert before a difficult, and very typical, band breakup. A little while later, he went back to Austin and started another band called ‘The Texas Maniacs’ but never played a gig. The summer heat and manual labor made it difficult to keep up the energy needed to go out and book venues. At one4 point, the roof blew off of the trailer house where he was living and was replaced with a black tar roof. It never got cooler than 90 degrees. Sidney is also awkward and shy-not a great booking agent. A few years later he headed to Nashville. After a few years, he got married to his Texas sweetheart, started a family, and started up a recording studio in East Nashville called PollyDog Recording. He recorded many artists along with two of his own personal albums of a different style. A kids/novelty album, “Bugs for Dinner”, and a masterful Rock collaboration album “Want Too Much” under the band name, “The L.G.’s.” (with the multi-talented Artist, Nathaniel Allen). In Nashville, Sidney also worked as a hydraulic tree transplanter operator, graveyard shift unloader/stocker at Wal-Mart, tourist photographer for the General Jackson river boat, screen printer and pre-press artist, drapery hanger for events, graphic designer, and created PollyDog Organic Landscapes with his wife.

A few years after marrying his Texas girlfriend in the yard of their home in East Nashville, they went back to Austin to raise their family in 2005. Although he left music for a few years, he started up again around 2019 with the ‘Origins’ album and followed it with the ‘Nashville Millennium’ and ‘Heart Shaped Rain’ albums. He also has recorded a handful of Single releases.

His personal life has been rocky starting from a dysfunctional, abusive childhood and later struggling with alcoholism, depression, and chronic fatigue. He’s sober now and focused on his family and musical path. He is grateful for sobriety and those around him that have held solid ground and allowed him to stabilize. He’s optimistic for the future and appreciates everyone who listens.

Official Website
www.bigsid.biz

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thesidshowonline?igsh=Mzd3YTRnY2UzM2cy

ThebigSid on Facebook (professional page)
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086390771041

Music and Personal on Facebook (photography, music, funnies, op-eds)
https://www.facebook.com/SidneyStephensMusicFacebook

YouTube Channel – Sidney Stephens – Songwriter Series/Official Videos/ Raw Videos/Vlogs
https://youtube.com/@sidneystephensmusic8793

YouTube Channel – ThebigSid – Songs/Videos
  https://www.youtube.com/@ThebigSid4U

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