"Learning Lettin' Go" - Joe Stamm Unplugged at SOL Studios

I had a party in high school. Several, in fact. My mom and step-dad went camping once a summer and my friends came over and drank beer. But we always cleaned up good. Except for once, when my parents came home and found one lone beer in the butter drawer of the fridge. I hid it there in case we ran out of beer during the party. Hid it too good.

I lived for football growing up. All I ever wanted to do was play for the Metamora Redbirds and get a Division 1 scholarship. I did both those things, but then I hurt my shoulder and never took a collegiate snap. Had to let go. But I stayed in school and they made me take an arts course to graduate. I took Intro to Guitar and started writing songs.

Always wanted a redbone coonhound. Used to beg my dad, but we never got one. After I graduated from college, I heard about a guy with a litter of pups and I picked up the last one. I named her Ruby June and we ran the woods like Billy Coleman, Old Dan and Little Anne. She got sick and died in 2015. I found Sam and we hunted for many years together, too. But touring got busy. I started having trouble making sense of trading a raccoon’s life for a couple dollars from a fur buyer. I didn’t enjoy it anymore. I took Sam and Fern one time last year. They split up and took off. Sam can hardly hear anymore, so he wouldn’t come back and wandered onto a neighbor’s property, who saw him on a trail cam and sent me an angry message. I had to let go.

Met a girl at a county fair, and she wrote her number on the back of a drink ticket. We dated for many years, longer than I’d dated anyone else. But it started unwinding and we held until it got ugly. We finally let go. I met my wife later that summer.

I hope you’re enjoying my record Memoirs and the stories it has to tell.

To listen: https://ffm.to/memoirsbyjoestamm
To order vinyl and merch: https://www.joestammband.com/merch

Video and audio produced by SOL Studios, Fort Smith, Arkansas. Recorded October, 2024.