Stolen Dreams Story

Stolen Dreams

You are listening to Stolen Dreams

The Story Behind The Song from the album-Stolen Dreams

14 Days (Jul 22) This is pretty much a direct transcription of a conversation over dinner with a sweet young 2^nd cousin. We made Facebook contact a couple of years ago as part of my family tree research. While on a visit to my hometown in May/Jun this year, I invited her to dinner to finally meet her. She was somewhat complaining about her love life, and halfway through dinner, I smiled and told her she was giving me a song. THINGS TO KNOW: The talented Miss Vivien Searcy from Sweden has recorded a version of this song for another project titled My Friends-My Songs.

I Love Shuffles (Oct 22) This song was a personal assignment because I wanted a good uptempo song for the album that was 90% finished. I DO love shuffles and swings. They are fun to play and sing. THINGS TO KNOW: This song might also make it onto My Friends-My Songs album.

Jenny's Wild Horse Saloon (Jul 22) The first song written for this album. This song is a spinoff of my bud Daniel T. Coates's song "Jenny Works In There" It's a 15-year-after thing. The more and more I heard the original song, I kept thinking it deserved a follow-up! THINGS TO KNOW: I asked Dan if he wanted to be 15 years later or 30 years later…he chose 15.

Joey and Elli (Sep 22) I was driving to a 2-day gig in a Western Town in Germany where I play in the summer. On the second day, I make myself write two songs before I venture outside for my first beer of the day. I was listening to the Joey and Rory song "Rodeo," and I was saddened by the thought of her being taken from us so young. I love her voice. And as soon as that thought cleared, I thought of a musician friend that lost her battle and had passed a year ago, and I had wanted to write some tribute to her. So Joey and Elli was written the next day. THINGS TO KNOW: Elli…I always called her Sweet Elli, the girlfriend of a musical brother, and they sang as a duo and in a band. I had sung a duet live with Sweet Elli at a music convention.

Just A Phase (Aug 22) This song was on my "songs to write" list for a long time. It's totally accurate, as I remember my "in-laws" telling my wife of 48 years that music love for music and performing was "Just A Phase." THINGS TO KNOW: The first 40 songs I wrote were horrible, but 20-plus years of Merle Haggard finally paid off.

Orphan Boy (Nov 22) This album was finished, and I was still on a writing high. I really don't know what inspired this, but after dinner one night, I was just messing around with a Waylon-type riff. And the story just started to tell itself. THINGS TO KNOW: I worked with a guy in Texas who identified himself as an Orphan, and he volunteered each year to be on duty for Christmas because he said it was a sad time for him.

Packed Up In One Day (Aug 22) This was a line in an episode of the Netflix Series Stranger Things. As soon as I heard the line, I quickly wrote it down as a "song to write". THINGS TO KNOW: The original version of the song was about coming out of the closet for a young girl versus a wife leaving her abusive husband. That version will appear on a following album.

Pray For Rain (Oct 22) This song started out as "It Always Rain's On My Birthday," but after I wrote the line "Pray For Rain," I knew that should be a title. But the entire theme from the song as I was driving to my wife's cousin's 80^th birthday party, thinking it always rains on her birthday. THINGS TO KNOW: I plugged the street "Clearbrook" from our Virginia Beach home for 14 years.

Stolen Dreams (Sep 22) This was another from the "songs to write" list. I've carried that theme around for many years but never seemed to be in the mindset to write it. THINGS TO KNOW: My wife was impressed with the truth of our generation, where the was no "visible or vocal signs of love" expressed by our parents.

The Country Store (Sep 22) This song is autobiographical. It describes my childhood hangout and country boy university. It is all true. THINGS TO KNOW: I repeated the line in every chorus, "where I learned to judge the character of men." Because I did.

This House Remembers (Jul 22) was another from the "songs to write" list. I have NO CLUE where that hook came from, but I was on a writing high for the past six months, so I just wrote it. THINGS TO KNOW: Kibler Valley is in my county in Virginia, and it just magically worked its way into the song.

The Shade Trees (Aug 22) I had just written down "Packed Up In One Day" as a song to write, and I got an email from my mother's neighbor's daughter, which I had spent some time with this past summer. Their family had moved into my Grandpa's old House. I told them about the House and yard and the shade trees in the 60s. In the email, she asked or recommended that I write a song about the shade trees in the yard and, if possible, to put her parents into the song. THINGS TO KNOW: I had known her father, Carter Bross since I was ten years old, and he always came out and spent an hour with me every time I was home visiting my Mama