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Singer/songwriter Stephen Shepherd’s new and third CD, Love Heals All
Things, contains 12 more original songs in the country rock & folk
genre. Like his first two CDs, Einstein’s Hair (2004) and Heartbreak
Standard Time (2005), which collectively combined for 14 hit records in
Europe, “In The Shade” – a single from Love Heals All Things - has been
on the US Roots Music Report for 62 weeks, peaking at #21, and it
charted at #11 in Italy and #31 in Sweden. Described as Gordon Lightfoot with a twang, Stephen Shepherd’s music on Love Heals All Things combines haunting lyrics, vaulting melodies, and superb acoustic guitar, dobra, and piano. While the metaphorical lyrics found in songs like “Shades of Darkness,” “Love Heals All Things,” and “In the Shade” set an introspective mood much like Lightfoot’s music, Shepherd’s literal use of straightforward country lyrics found in his Jimmy Buffet-like song “Eaten By The Rich,” The Eagles-like “City Boy” and “The War’s Never Over,” or Johnny Cash-like “Bought Some Roses” makes the country-edge real. Perhaps the biggest song on the album is Shepherd’s country song “Wake Me From This Nightmare,” which successfully fulfills a country fan’s need for down home lyrics with a sweeping melody about lost love, while the third verse reaches into a dream-like state to introduce a surreal country sound. Lighter, melodious songs (a la Lightfoot) include “Standing Here Like Me,” reflections about a childhood home, and “Seven Miles Away,” a worship & praise song about Christ’s birth. Finally, two blues tunes hit the mark. “Saturday Morning TV” focuses on the influence of television violence on children, while “Biopsy Blues” chases the notion that medical science can’t cure love sickness. With his third album, Love Heals All Things and his 36th recorded song in three years, Stephen Shepherd is fast proving to be a prolific and articulate songwriter with compelling cross-genre music. – Circus Girl Records Stephen Shepherd's first CD, Einstein's Hair, scored 6 top ten hits on the European Charts. His second CD, Heartbreak Standard Time, continued that success with Shepherd's first bluegrass tune "Ten Tall Women" climbing to #20 on the charts in Germany. Based in folk/country roots, Stephen Shepherd’s songwriting contains poignant lyrics that discuss his relationship with a myriad of characters. On the album Heartbreak Standard Time, he discusses the lonely expectations of a greasy-spoon waitress in "Georgia Fine," a person wondering at 3am what happened to his relationship in "Heartbreak Standard Time," the regrets of a bum of not having a women in "Boxcar Life," the miscalculations of a man who uses his horoscope to predict romance in "Phases of The Moon," two lovers who can't get together because of their urban vs. rural roots in "Tuesday Come Monday," a telephone call that no one answers to renew a former relationship in "Telephone Line To Nowhere," a man who waits at a train station for a lover who doesn't arrive in "Friction," and a recollection of a lost love in "My Lady Friend." Described as “lyric-based folk-country with small town realism,” his songs have been likened to John Prine, Bob Dylan, and Arlo Guthrie. On the album Heartbreak Standard Time, all of the characters have one thing in common: they share the experience that heartbreaks are timeless. |