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Sidney Stephens ‘Origins’ album is a compilation of the artist’s favorite songs from his beginning days as a songwriter and musician. His sound is clearly influenced by multi dimensional Country, Rock n’ Roll, and Blues. Individual songs weigh heavier to one side of each genre, but invoke an interesting blend of all genres.

The collection takes a journey through different vibes, beginning with a soft version and ending with a harder version of the same song. Each composition easily stands alone as a single release.

Overall, the songs resemble music from an era that may have existed in an alternative universe. The simplistic lyric heavy music may have been sung aloud by thousands of followers on controlled media outlets to appease thoughts of individuality. It’s entirely possible that if you have read this far into the album explanation, you also may be controlled by an overwhelming mass media mind control project. In any case, it’s a pretty good home studio album by a pretty good songwriter.

The album cover art represents the 30 years it took to develop this album. A silhouette image of young Sid in front of a half face image of older Sid. The inside jacket has images of two acoustic guitars used on the album, a Takamine and a Fender. He designed the two halves of an acoustic and electric guitar that symbolizes his mixture of Country, Blues, and Rock. The image was also used for promotional t-shirts and flyers in the early years with the phrase “Stuck Between a Rock and a Country Place”. The custom Takamine guitar artwork was wood burned by friend, Zack Amos with the image of a phoenix to represent Sidney’s regeneration of music.

Origin Song Stories

I wrote 18 Wheels about my good friend, Lee and his wife and family. It was my take on the truck driving life and how hard it was to be gone so much from his family. We drove as a team for a while, back and forth across the country, in the 90’s. He died from cancer on the last day of July of 2019. I was lucky enough to hang out with him again before he died. I miss him a lot. He was a great friend.

18 Wheels- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

He follows the never ending white line
Got to keep his family behind
They say this lifestyle takes a certain creed
And he does his best to give his children what they need
Now she’s at home making all the ends meet
Takes the kids to school and ties the shoes on their feet
She’s got a job down at the Dairy Queen
Keeps her mind off the highway and preserves her sanity

(CHORUS)
And if you listen to the night time
You can hear a certain sound
Eighteen wheels crying as they
Roll across the ground
The moon above is shining light on his way home
But sometimes the moon is crying too, cause’
That ain’t the way those eighteen wheels roll

Sometimes the road of marriage gets a little rough
And sometimes they wonder if life this way is just too much
And it’s hard to communicate a thousand miles away
So they put it all on hold til’ he gets home in a few more days
And making up is good, but never long enough
The highway pulls the tension and tests the strength of love
She can hear a teardrop fall as he pulls out on the road
And life goes on, til’ he gets back home

(CHORUS)

Tonight in Tennessee is also a trucking song. The lyrics are pretty simple. It’s about feeling lonely, driving down the road. I guess it could be just a driving song. It doesn’t have to be a truck. I just happened to be driving a truck when I wrote the song on the long desolate interstate highway between Knoxville and Roanoke.

Tonight in Tennessee- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

Padre Island Moon is also pretty simple. It’s like my brother said un-enthusiastically, “Hm, another song about a girl”. I almost named the album that. The lyrics almost explain the whole story. I was sixteen years old, I fell in love with a girl I saw in a restaurant in Brownsville, and then we left. I didn’t tell her, mostly because I didn’t live anywhere near Brownsville, so it would’ve been pointless. Also, my wife, Teresa, is singing harmony. She’s been singing it with me on the porch for years, so I figured she should sing on the album too.

Padre Island Moon- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

I once met a girl down in south Texas
Don’t recall I ever got her name
But she had the prettiest deep brown eyes
This country boy had ever seen

I heard somewhere that a beautiful woman
Was the lonliest creature on Earth
And if that’s true, the girl I saw
Was the lonliest girl in the world

(chorus)
I was dreaming of a chance with fate
Underneath the Padre Island moon
And I think I made a big mistake
‘Cause only if she knew
How I felt about her, but now it don’t matter
I casn only tell the Padre Island moon
Yeah, now it don’t matter, how I felt about her
And I can only tell the Padre Island moon

(chorus)

I was just sixteen, traveling down the road
Going to see the town where I was born
But all I could think of was the girl I’d met
As I stood upon the Corpus Christi shore

(chorus)

I felt a raindrop fall from above
But there were no clouds in the sky
The Padre Island moon looked so sad
You know I didn’t know the moon could cry

Heartache Drift was written by a friend that told me that he left his house in Seattle to get a pack of cigarettes, and wound up at my camper door in Austin, two thousand miles away. It’s a pretty hard-core breakup song, completely written from his anguished perspective. I tried to convey the pain and sadness he was going through and even impersonated him playing guitar in the video. He was a troubled soul with a good heart….I think. I mean, he did leave his wife. He had some serious issues for sure, but he got me out of a bind a couple times. Once in Austin and once in Nashville. He still owes me though, but that’s another story.

Heartache Drift- Sidney Vance Stephens/ Patrick Sullivan ©BMI

You could’ve smelled the fear when she put down the phone
For the first time that night she realized she was alone
No one left for her to blame
A teardrop fell and it started to rain

(Chorus)
And oh how she cried that night
Like a little girl on a stormy night
No one knew how I felt that day
Heartache drift and I faded away

And now you hope for forgotten times
Our love is gone, it’s just used up lines
No more lies to hide the truth
Time for a change while we’re still in our youth

(Chorus)

And now it’s time to end our song
No happy ending, it’s taken so long
So off to Texas I had to go
And fade away with a broken soul

(Chorus)

And oh how I cried that night
Like a little boy on a stormy night
No one knew how she felt that day
Heartache drift and she faded away

And oh how she cried that night
Like a little girl on a stormy night
No one knew how I felt that day
Heartache drift and I just faded away

Bluebird, is a tricky story, but I’ll keep it simple. It’s based on a true event when I was about ten years old. I lived outside of Gallup, New Mexico, next to the Navajo Indian Reservation. Bluebird was a Medicine Man. Some other kids and I vandalized a building, and the song suggests that Bluebird saw us, and put a curse on us.

I know there are some things wrong with the song. But, it’s just a story.

I am fully aware that a Medicine Man is not a witch doctor, and doesn’t do hexes. And that I should articulate ‘Native American’ instead of Indian. But, things were different when I wrote this song, and Indians still refer to themselves as Indians.

Bluebird- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

Two miles walking down an often muddy road
Short cut through the trees to get to a country home
A hogwire fence right down the middle of two muddy paths
Indians walk their road, white men stare and laugh
Cause Indians don’t see the world like some say it should be
Everything’s got it’s price, the Earth, sky, and the sea

To a child there’s no boundary, no fence too tall to climb
A boy knows every inch of the land from the valley to the sky
Four boys walked to reservation land where a Hogan stood tall
Four boys struck by ignorance sat and watched that Hogan fall

(Chorus)
There was an eagle in the sky as the walls fell down
Bluebird, are you still around?
Thunder from the Earth, a young boy cried
Medicine Man, are you satisfied?

Came across a feather and a bottle of sand
Didn’t even try to understand
Should’ve left it alone, just walked away
Thinking maybe they’d understand someday

Bluebird can you fly? Bluebird can you fly?
Bluebird can you fly? Bluebird did you fly?

Can’t explain what was done. Maybe I’m too ashamed to say
But strange things happened to four boys in strange ways
I may be the only one with a reason why
All four boys had hard times throughout their lives

One’s already dead and gone, another living in jail
One strung out for a time-did time in a cement H ell
One I’d rather not speak about,someone I know well
But hard times followed like a plague from the day that Hogan fell

(Chorus)
Bluebird did you fly?

Losin’ Man is another song that I probably should be ashamed of. It’s about a good friend of mine. I actually cleared it with him on recording this song, so we’re okay. I’m not proud of how insensitive I was. The song is mostly just me being annoyed at someone that might’ve had serious depression issues. But we didn’t know about that stuff then. It was the 90’s and nobody cared about anybody. But it’s also a metaphor for all of us, especially dudes that peel out when we’re mad. When we just throw a fit, and act ridiculous because we don’t like something. I’ve done it myself, and that’s why I put it on the album.

Losin’ Man- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

(Chorus)
You can drive away mad
Burn your tires around the bend
Make that motor scream six thousand RPM
Tick off all the neighbors and piss off all your friends
There ain’t a woman in the world wants to win
A losin’ man

You won’t explain what your feeling
Locked up in your room
Friend turned against you
And stole your woman too
Instead of paying rent
You go out to shoot pool
I can’t understand why she thinks that
You’re a hopeless fool

One day you’re up
Another day you’re frowns
You want to play music
But you can’t get the songs down
You say you know everything
There is to know
Except the first step is
Knowing what you don’t know

(Chorus)

There’s only one thing to say
As you go out on your own
As long as your mind is lost
It will never get home

And it’s never happened
To anyone but you
You must be the first
To ever sing the blues

(Chorus)

Lost in Austin is my story about moving to Austin to really kick-start my music career. It did not work, but it’s a tribute to the laid back, creative vibes Austin has. The only line that isn’t true is “Ten years ago”. It’s actually been 28, and the original line was 3. Also, I changed, “Fly around…” from “Drive around” because I wouldn’t want people wasting gas, driving around Austin, and traffic is horrible.

Lost in Austin- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

Just about 10 years ago
Headed out on the road
Looking for some kind of peace of mind
To soothe my soul and maybe let it shine
On first sight of the city’s glow
I knew no further should I roam
Felt something inside, Like I was home
There’s nothing better, this I know

(chorus)
So, Let’s get lost in Austin tonight
Just fly around the city lights
No better place, Oh, I have found
Will let a soul lost, just hang around

And the stage lights, feel good to me
And the faces, in the crowd I see
Make it seem so real, This crazy dream
Makes it easy, to believe
And when the guitars meet the highway again one day
And they find their selves upon another stage
This city’s glow will spread some their way
And the faces in the crowd, some will say

(chorus)

No better place, Oh, I will find
Will let a soul lost, Find peace of mind

Corazón is one of the first things I plucked out on guitar. The Flamenco influence is from living in Santa Fe, New Mexico and from a friend who was a local Spanish singer and amazing guitarist. It’s a small, unworthy tribute to David Salazar.

Corazõn- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

Concrete Streets, for me, was about feeling content with just being with someone in the moment. Relaxed and comfortable, in a big house in Houston while it poured down rain. It was also about ruining that moment by thinking, and realizing I probably didn’t fit in there, and would have to eventually go back to my crappy life. So it was also about enjoying it while it lasted. There’s more to that story, but I’m not going to dig myself any deeper. I did marry the girl.

Concrete StreetsCorazõn- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

Underneath, an orange sky
Lighted by the city lights
And the city streets are made of concrete
So they don’t wash away on rainy days

(chorus)
We were lying close on the second floor
Looking out to the concrete streets
Hear the hum of the raindrops outdoors
Crashing to the concrete streets
Life is so comfortable
Over the concrete streets
And I could grow a good kind of feeling
Here above the concrete streets

And that clouded orange sky
Seems to mesmerize
As I stroll barefoot through the yard
Like walking through a crawdad farm
And I sit and ponder
And my mind starts to wander
Up into the sky
Humming a little lullabye

(chorus)

And when it’s time to leave
I’ll say goodbye subtly
Won’t look back to see
The glimmer of the street
And it’s back to my life
And my own city lights
But a memory I will keep
In my mind like a concrete street

I recorded Broken Diamond for my sister in-law. She really likes that song. It’s not a true story, as far as I know. I made it all up because I was imagining playing a dance hall in Big Spring, Texas when I was on my way to Austin, and I thought I might need a two stepping, honky-tonk song. It may be my only two stepping song.

Broken DiamondCorazõn- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

She was sitting on the bar stool all alone
And when any man came along
She’d look into his eyes and smile a sultry smile
Laugh quietly to herself and turn and hide

One man came to sit beside her
Before he took the seat she said
Don’t you get too close to the fire, Son
There’s a burning path from a broken diamond

(chorus)
This girl’s been hurt in an awful way
His promises were so easy to make
Now only the fire remains son
Left a trail of fire from a broken diamond

Now she can never let a man get close to her
She’s afraid to the words when it’s over
Now it could last one night, or it could last ten years
Nothing more than just a matter of crying tears

(chorus)

One man might again touch her gentle and slow
Or hold her all night long you know
But what she needs tonight, is someone saying it’ll be allright
To ease the pain of a broken diamond

(chorus)
There’s a burning path from a broken diamond
There’s a trail of fire from a broken diamond

Will You Always Be There was written as a warning for my future wife. She was not deterred. I think if you’re not sure you want someone to get serious, maybe you shouldn’t write them a waltz. I also included this song as a tribute to my friend, Micah, who passed away in late 2015. He was a great friend and great for singing along to this song deep into the morning hours. I added an extra chorus just for him.

Will You Always Be ThereCorazõn- Sidney Vance Stephens ©BMI

It’s been a long cold winter
Keep on carrying on
One more transition
And one more song

The sun has been hidden
Seems like sixty days
But there’s a new kind of sunshine
Sending out different rays

(chorus)
Will you always be there?
Through the good and the bad?
Through rainy weather
And cloudy days so sad?

Will you always be there?
Even when I’m not around?
When the highway has stolen me
From this town?

I know you believe
In destiny
And I can sometimes see
You forever with me

And I want you to know
How I feel about you
And if it weren’t for the show
I could fall for you

No matter what
Our lives have to hold
I want you to know I care
And I’ll always be there

(chorus) + 1 for Micah

18 Wheels-Loaded is the same song as the first one on this album. A tribute to Lee, and truckers everywhere. It’s a little faster and louder. I like both versions, so I put em’ both on, although I wish now that the loaded version was just an instrumental. Maybe it’s on YouTube.

There are actually three versions of the song. The third, 18 Wheels-Bobtail, is mostly the same as the first track on this album. No drums or bass. It was released as a single with a different reverb effect and beginning vocal track. I doubt many people would notice, but it would’ve stood out if it was included on this album in comparison to the rest of the songs. I’ll call it a lesson in patience. My friend, Bryan Nickle helped me with the mix, but I got ahead of him.