A Jazz Great Steers Steve South:

In 2001, Steve was introduced to a well-known jazz guitarist and music theorist named Chuck Anderson. After a couple years of music study, the musical mentor steered Steve south drawing from the stories embedded in his songs. The lead song in the CD, "Stuck In A U'Haul," tells the true story of how the singer-songwriter found his way back to the country music he loved as a youth. As a youth Steve grew up in the Northeast but ironically listened to a wide array of artists including Kenny Rogers and Dottie West, Charlie Daniels Band, Emmylou Harris and Willie and Waylon.

As the song recounts, Steve left one lesson with Chuck where they spoke of writing country music, he got in a fourteen foot U'Haul and then drove back home to Virginia with family belongings in the truck. In the process, he gave up his nine-to-five job in the city and went country where he felt more at ease. On the single band radio in the truck Steve heard Keith Urban's "Days Go By" among others. He found pieces of his life in those songs and he found a home for his music. While he was "stuck in a U'Haul" that day heading south, Steve wrote the title track of the CD.

Steve Meets Jim Ebert:

In 2004, Steve "Acoustic is King" Palmer was introduced to a gold record producer/mixer known as Jim "Electric Rules" Ebert. Steve wrote pretty words and phrases on anything close at hand and he melted in the gaze of the pale blue sky. Jim toiled in dark, underground studios recording rhythm tracks and playing anything he could get his hands on. Steve liked to yak about life, people and places. Jim didn't waste time talking and instead liked to pound out country and rock CDs in a spontaneous unpretentious flurry.

After Steve had pestered Jim for months, Jim agreed to record a couple of his songs with Jim's studio musicians at Cue Recording Studios in Virginia. They ended up recording "Stuck In A U’Haul" and "No Looking Back." In the summer of 2005, Steve then signed with indie label Arythmia Records^TM as a new artist and Ebert and Palmer managed to laugh at their incompatibility the whole time.