This song captures a young man’s belief in love, his expectation of sharing it, his honesty in wanting it, and yet his realization that there are just a few things standing in the way—like him and her—but they can be counted on to get there…and when they do…“there” will be wonderful. The two of them definitely “can become something.”

Become Something

Smarter Child Than Me

Words, Music and Vocals: Stephen Price

Six-year-old Erin and I were standing on our back deck looking at the unfinished tree house that had become one of those never-ending projects of mine, a grandiose concept well in excess of my minimal engineering skills.

Erin, along with her sisters, really wanted a tree house. When she asked when it would be done, I explained that it was complicated.

“No it isn’t,” she said directly. “You just have to build it,” she pointed out. I protested, “But it isn’t that easy.”

“Yes it is,” she said very matter of factly, very knowingly.

I realized that my cagey rationalizations were no match for the clarity of Erin’s thinking…and for the straightforward truth of it. The tree fort actually wasn’t that complicated; it was pretty easy; and all I had to do was build it.

I already knew Erin was something special, but on that day, her “just build it” six-year-old philosophy and “it’s easy” certainty were confident and accurate conclusions welling up from her contemplative deep waters, and breaking through her ordinary surface stillness. I admired it that day, and still do to this day.

Smarter Child Than Me

Take Your Time!

Words, Guitar, Shaker and Vocals: Stephen Price

Percussion: Jenny Price-Smith

Tamborine: Megan Price

Cowbell: Julia Smith

Piano and Percussion: Jarrett Nicolay

Laughter: All

A song about the endless patience of true love. This song came to be when I was simply having fun playing guitar one day. When the song was finished, I thought to try it out on my Dad, which I often did with my music. While my Dad generally liked what I wrote and played, he seemed to love the story of “Take Your Time” with an unusual degree of enthusiasm.

When I later played it for my Mom, and told her how much Dad loved it, she responded:

“Of course he loved it. He thinks it is about him!”

Knowing my Dad’s reputation for taking his time with all things, maybe it was about him, and I just didn’t realize it.

Thanks to my sister, niece and daughter for making this the raucous version it is; and to my producer/collaborator, Jarrett, for the addition of extra percussion and rocking piano that literally has this song moving like a train down the track!

Love's Supposed To Be

Words, Music and Vocals: Stephen Price

Vocals: Brittany Valint

From words, to touch, to undying commitment, love is that simple. I have enjoyed that love in my life, and wish it for everyone. From a songwriting perspective, I always felt this song was a duet and am very fortunate that Brittany Valint was able to share her incredible voice to this simple tune. Her voice brings reality to the shared nature of the words. Brittany is such a talented artist. I thank her for helping me produce this song, the way I heard it in my head. The true equality expressed in the words and harmonies…because that is the way “love’s supposed to be.”

How Did It Happen

Words, Music and Vocals: Stephen Price and Arthur Marsh

Piano, Mandolin and Vocals: John McCormack

The title of this song is from a poem, shared below, by Arthur Marsh—a terrific writer and a terrific father-in-law. He and I enjoyed sharing our creative efforts- he, in words, and me, in song. One day, he handed me the poem and asked if I would put it to music. His poem told a story and asked a question about the mysterious bonds we form in our families, and the amazing speed of time. One aspect of this song that makes it truly special for me is the collaborative brilliance of one of Arthur’s other sons-in-law, John McCormack. John’s musical talents are prodigious…and I am so grateful for the musical production assistance he provided. The song itself does not seek to mirror the poem, but rather to capture its heart, and even more so to capture the poet’s heart-a great heart. Arthur never got to hear this song, passing away before it was finished. But the last verse seems to foresee that. When Arthur handed me his poem, I think maybe he was foreseeing that as well. The touch of Arthur’s hand, was truly the touch of his heart.

How Did It Happen?

By Arthur Marsh

How did it happen

That you became me and I

See myself as you race across the

Field, climb a tree and wrestle on the ground?

How did it happen

It seemed like such a short time ago

I held you and watched you smile and

Listened to you sleep without a sound?

How did it happen

That I grew old and you grew up

And there’s so much we don’t know

About each other?

How did it happen

That you became me and you

I pause now, hold out my hand

Hurry, hurry. Have I waited too long?

Be Together Again

Words, Music, Vocals and Piano: Stephen Price

Piano: Jarrett Nicolay

This song has a companion song found later in the album, written 30 years apart. Be Together Again was written by a lovelorn young man away at school, to his love “so far away” in the big city. A long-distance relationship frequently punctuated by late night calls, which neither could afford. All I really owned at the time was a $100 car and a tent. At least Robin had a credit card. The second song was written around the occasion of our 25th anniversary, looking back at that earlier time, and at that uncertain young man, who was trying to find a way, trying to find the courage, to express his love through

his music. Of course, he did eventually find the courage to write Be Together Again; and then reaffirmed all those feelings, after many fantastic years together, in This Song’s for You. Robin, both of these songs are for you.

Gaffney Girl

Words, Music and Vocals: Stephen Price

Vocals: Jenny Price-Smith, Julia Smith, and Megan Price

This is the title song for the album, because in many ways my Mom truly inspired me to explore and develop my interest in music, in the guitar, in singing…and definitely in writing. Joan Gaffney did this for all her children and grandchildren—there was nothing we were willing to try that she did not encourage. And even if our accomplishments were objectively modest, to her they were always fantastic. Support like that gives you courage to try, and to fail, and to try again. This song evokes two homes, the one my mother grew up in…and later, the one we grew up in. The similarities were striking: fun, filled with family gatherings, lots of kids all playing, putting on shows, and everyone laughing a lot. My Dad always enjoyed his cameo in this song the “dashing man at her side.”

But when I watch my Mom listen to this song, I can almost see her transported back to the beautiful home she grew up in, and feel the pride she feels from providing us with the same wonderful home filled with love.

Oh, that house did dance
love did fill that home
All the family came, just to feel the warmth
All the children sang; all the children grew
And carried on the love
the love they always knew.

On the chorus of this song, you also hear the Gaffney Girl’s progeny carrying on the love they always knew through the voice of her daughter, Jenny Price-Smith, and her granddaughters, Julia Smith and Megan Price.

Hard Life

Words, Music and Vocals: Stephen Price

Harmonies: Brittany Valint

A song about seeing where you are, here and now, and taking control over the life you have been given. This is a call to action for anybody who is feeling down, angry even, about things not being what they expected. There is an unfairness to some tough things that life throws at some, but not all-that is true. But there is also the mistake of assuming that those tough things are destiny; that those tough things dictate tomorrow; that tomorrow is somehow out of our hands-which is not true. This song is saying, no matter what your life is, it is your life with which to do something.

Just Another Day

Words, Music and Vocals: Stephen Price

Piano: Jarrett Nicolay

The picture was stunning: The NY City Fireman pushing up the crowded stairwell of one of the twin towers on 9/11, as all other occupants were rushing down to escape the damaged structure and fire. It evoked everything I ever considered to be heroic and courageous.And yet I knew, from my own years of military service, that fireman, like law enforcement, like soldiers, do not consider themselves to be heroes when taking such actions. They consider it to be their duty, their job. For them it is truly “just another day.” I have played this song for many public servants. Many heroes have made the ultimate sacrifice for others, and for our country. Thankfully many also survived that horrific day, and the days and years that followed.This song reveres them all, and most certainly those who have most recently lost their lives in service to our country. This song, inspired by a simple call to duty by a single New York City fireman, came to also highlight the selfless acts of so many others, both before and since 9/11, who display such amazing courage and commitment to public service, day-in and day-out. Thank you for your service.

Brothers Bound

Words, Music and Vocals: Stephen Price

Mandolin: John McCormack

Ever have a brother who is more like a friend? We weren’t twins, but we may as well have been. I don’t remember a day in my life when my younger brother, Michael, was not a part of it. We have played a million games, and won a bunch of them. We have competed a bunch of times against one another, and won all of them! We have grown up together, and grown up apart. But we will always be, Brothers Bound.

Baby of Mine

Words, Music and Vocals: Stephen Price

Mandolin: John McCormack

Inspired by Megan, our first born, and definitely something new to her parents. Something New jumped out of my guitar when Megan was about four months old. I came into her room in the morning and she was in her crib, pushed up on her hands craning her head to see everything she could possibly see of this incredible world she found herself in. Meg has not stopped craning, looking, grasping and trying for something new, in all the days since. No matter when you may have come to know Megan, you will see her in this song.

This Song's For You

This Song’s for You

Words, Music and Vocals: Stephen Price

This song is dedicated to Robin.

Just Four Boys

Words, Music and Vocals: Stephen Price

Guitar and Vocals: Kevin O’Reagan

This ballad was inspired when I reconnected with one of my best friends from childhood, Kevin O’Reagan. He and his brother Michael, were thick as thieves with me and my brother Michael. We did everything together, including many adventures in “the woods,” a large undeveloped forest behind Kevin’s house, through which the Piscataway creek ran on its path to the Potomac river. During the Spring, the herring would make their annual spawning run up the Piscataway.We would camp out, make homemade fishing nets with chicken wire and tree vines, and catch “a ton” of herring that we would cook over the camp fire. They were sweet, innocent times…and their memory always makes me smile. I smile even more broadly when I listen to this recording, because not only do the harmonies bring forth the notion of all of us joining into this song, but Kevin, an excellent musician himself, joins me on this song with his wonderful guitar leads and vocals. For me, everything about this song evokes wonderful feelings of the friendship and joy that often comes so easily in youth.

You and Me

Words, Music and Vocals: Stephen Price

Vocals: Jenny Price-Smith, Julia Smith, Katie Shea

Kelsey, our youngest, was a tiny little thing as a child, and fought to have her voice heard. But it was a voice worth hearing…with valuable thoughts worth sharing. As with Erin and Megan, I desired to write a song that highlighted her…but her many wonderful qualities always challenged me to capture in a single song. But on the eve of her 16th birthday, it came to me, that it was her many qualities that gave her an ability to connect with all of us in wonderfully different, but truly unique and remarkably endearing ways. If you really wanted to know Kelsey, you needed to take all of her in, especially as it related to her family. Kelsey is not just Kelsey, but Kelsey and Erin; Kelsey and Megan, Kelsey and her Mom, Kelsey and her Dad. The wholeness of Kelsey’s sweetness, the love that she evokes and gives to her mother and father, the guidance and wisdom she shares with her oldest sister, and the undying closeness, commitment and space she shares with her sister, Erin. Each verse of this song is sung from another’s point of view. I am so happy to have had the collaboration of Jenny Price-Smith, Julia Smith and Katie Shea, each of whom brings to life through their voices the perspectives of Robin, Megan and Erin in Kelsey’s song…You and Me.

You and Me

PROCEEDS BENEFIT

Wisconsin Veterans Village Association provides affordable housing, support and community to veterans throughout their lifespan.

FDNY Foundation supports NYC Firefighters and their families.

The Old Soldiers Home Foundation (TOSHF) supports Veterans in their retirement years at the Armed Forces Retirement Homes in Washington DC, and in Gulfport, MS.