Story Behind The Song

Playing my music solo for the first time in front of a live audience. Changed my life. Found out that night was the moment I would figure out if I would put my guitar on the shelf or keep playing and writing. A girl in the audience connected with me from a distance. I could barely see her eyes through the blinding spotlight. But I felt her energy and she helped release something in me. This song is dedicated to the silent muse in the shadows whom I never met - who is responsible for keeping me on the music path. I played this song that night, but re-wrote the lyrics to describe the fire that she started in me.

Song Description

There is a hidden fire in each of us dying to be freed into the supernova it longs to become. And, almost as if purposely, we never know what will trigger it. Who was to know that a brief, but powerful, connection with a crowd behind the smoky haze of the dark stage of CBGB's basement would fuel the flame and break open the cage to start the journey of one bird's song? Well, most certainly not I.

Lyrics

THE CRAVING
Music by J. Stedman
Music and Lyrics by J. Stedman and A. Towbin

Smoky haze, whiskey burns on my tongue.
Torn red couches, never once have seen the sun.
Stale perfume, tags on the bathroom stalls.
30 years of history line the backstage halls.

Got the call tonight last minute opening.
Friend asks me if I've got any songs to sing.
6 train down to CBs with a broken string.
And my heart - sliding down my sleeve.

Somewhere deep inside, there's a hidden sun waiting to shine.
The moment it finds a way, there's no turning back to yesterday.

The spotlight burns a blinding halo.
Candles do a dance between the silhouettes and shadows.
Old guitar in hand, a lonely microphone stand.
Crowd's a little loud waitin' on the headline band.

Then their faces turn, their eyes burn.
To make my soul ignite in the midnight.
Supernova on the cusp, exploding into stardust.
Letting go as I become my dreams.
(Letting go to wake up in my dream.)

Somewhere deep inside, there's a hidden sun waiting to shine.
The moment it finds a way, there's no turning back to yesterday.

There's a place at home I'd sit alone.
And sing the tune of the caged bird's song.
I feel the bars close in on me.
But in my dreams I see the key.

Somewhere deep inside, there's a hidden sun waiting to shine.
The moment it finds a way, there's no turning back to yesterday.

For the first time I realize, what it is to feel alive.
We must all have a sun inside, and after tonight I now know why.

I now know why. I now know why.
I now know why. I now know why.