Mike Stephens

Sleeping Near The Exit is Mike's third and probably final album with songs like Rembrandt & Carmen which tells the tale of two lost lovers who speak to one another of their fears at a cafe every morning while "a sleepy eyed waitress" listens.

​

Carmen said to Rembrandt, There's a bird of prey

Who hovers over me every night and day

Makes me feel like a rabbit and I wanna run

Disappear into the noonday sun

And Rembrandt said to Carmen, Don't pay it no mind

'Cause all I see around you are butterflies

​

And everybody knew they were in love

But no one ever said it to their face...

​

The songs on this album are less about Mike and more about what he has seen in some of the people around him. For instance, Yvette's Song explores complacency in the suburbs while Going Fishing deals with the regret we all feel with age, thinking about the "things that might have been." That is not to say that there aren't a few songs from Mike's personal history. The Tree is about his return to a city where he lived as a runaway boy and finding a tree he'd carved a lover's name years before. I Dreamed I Saw St Francis is about a Catholic orphanage where he'd spent a few years. And Someday is a haunting folk ballad about a lost love.

​

All in all, this is a beautiful collection of lyrically rich songs that will draw you in and leave you with a sense that you've known this man for years.

​

Here is a track from this album: