Off Chris Milam's forthcoming album Kids These Days (out April 7 on Namesake Records).

LYRICS:
Are you happy where you’re sleeping?
Is he keeping you warm?
Are you back to where you started?
Just a port in a storm?
Is it everything you wanted?
Can we ever be sure? 
I’ve been thinking about leaving
I’ve been wanting something more		

All content copyright Milam Music 2017.

At The End Of The Day

Off Chris Milam's forthcoming album Kids These Days (out April 7 on Namesake Records).

LYRICS:
It’s been a long night, and clouds in a daze drift through the haze of a dark sky, and through my shades, 
City’s waking to new light, falling all around
	
It’s been a long year, and I’ve been breaking,
No, I’ve been broken down here, 
And I’ve taken all I can take of old tears,
Last snow on the ground
Have you had enough by now?
	Had enough by now

And the day ain’t dawned, but it’s ready
And the moon ain’t gone, but it’s setting
And now the sun isn’t up, but the sky is waiting

	Coming up… 
	Had enough by now?

And her heart won’t know what it’s getting
And my mind won’t miss what it’s forgetting
And now the sun isn’t up, but the sky is waiting		

All content copyright Milam Music 2017.

The Sun Isn't Up

Off Chris Milam's forthcoming album Kids These Days (out April 7 on Namesake Records).

LYRICS:
Midnight in midtown again, my mind’s running off 	
Follow it down to our house, see the lights off		
I can still smell the paint and the unfinished floor
And all of our ghosts wave from the porch			

Past the place with the malbec you used to like	
Past every dive where you’d help me sing for my life
Past our church on Union and race through the red, no one’s in sight 
And all of our ghosts fill up my night				

The future’s parked in the driveway, I stop and pretend	
The passenger seat is empty, save for the wind		
The box in the backseat’s a child nobody wants, and you have the rest
And all of these ghosts are all I got left		

All content copyright Milam Music 2017.

All Of Our Ghosts

Off Chris Milam's forthcoming album Kids These Days (out April 7 on Namesake Records).

LYRICS:
When I was young, head full of ice cream, chasing every firefly in the yard 
And I was running fast, while the day lasts, and I poured all the light out of my jar
A purple smile, a silver tongue
When I was young

When I was fourteen, head full of chlorine, I sang alone to Vs in my room
And you were fifteen, in his Cherokee, summer and a Southern sky in bloom
I couldn’t reach the moon you hung
When I was young

When I was twenty-three, head full of kerosine
Bored in the calm before the storm 
Living dayblind, spending my prime, wasting your time, selling white lies 
Downing boxed wine, driving all night, chasing tail lights, losing my mind 
A bottled heart, a loaded gun
When I was young
I slept it off and blamed it on 
When I was young

All content copyright Milam Music 2017.

When I Was Young

Off Chris Milam's forthcoming album Kids These Days (out April 7 on Namesake Records).

LYRICS:
Hey, Hollywood it’s been a little while, the last time I saw you it was Golden Era-style
You had Audrey in your shades, you had Ava in that smile
And the lesser stars reflected off your hood
Hey, Hollywood

I miss California, and I miss NYC, tell me Miss Ohio, are you ever missing me
When that camera fades to black, when that final curtain falls
Is it lonely in the dark, can you hear me call
Hey, Hollywood, you got me hanging on the line 
You got me out in Central time, you got me acting like I’m fine

Maybe my life ain’t on your screen, maybe it’s all out of reach
Our little scene, it’s all a dream I can’t afford
Honey, the stars are fading out and there’s no one else around
And I’d stay with you tonight if I could 
Hey, Hollywood

If I could make a movie, we’d travel back in time
And I’d rewrite every line and kiss that smile right off your face
And we’d live happy ever after while the orchestra plays
Or maybe I’d just leave you where you stood
Hollywood

All content copyright Milam Music 2017.

Hey, Hollywood

Off Chris Milam's forthcoming album Kids These Days (out April 7 on Namesake Records).

LYRICS:
I need a new drug, this one is tired and old, gimme one for a fever, one for a cold
I need a new drug, oh anything but sleep, I need some white noise or a blue screen
I need a new drug

I need a new love, no I just want the fall, turn down the shades and climb the walls
I need a new love, and she don’t ask a thing, no fixed address, heirloom rings
I need a new drug, I probably need two, if you want me, I could use you
I need a new love, I need a new drug 

Never gonna be alone anymore, anymore more, and more…

I need a new God, to take me off my mind, take my call, just one time
I need a new life, we need a new sound, I’m trying to get lost in my hometown
I need a new God, I need a new drug

Never gonna feel alone anymore, and more, and more…

I need a new drug, I need a welcome distraction 
Don’t leave me dissatisfaction, don’t leave me overreactions 
Don’t leave me fractions of fractions
You never come, you never go, I never call, you never show, 
I need a lie, I need a no, I need enough

All content copyright Milam Music 2017.

New Drug

Off Chris Milam's forthcoming album Kids These Days (out April 7 on Namesake Records).

LYRICS:
Consider me a stained glass, consider me the stain
Look into me, read into me
Consider me a fountain, consider me the rain
Look into me, see right through me
Consider me an organ, consider me a hymn
Listen to me, listen to me
Consider me an orphan, consider me again
If you know me, oh don’t you know me
Know me
I’m screaming out, broken to ya
Singing hallelujah, hallelujah 

All content copyright Milam Music 2017.

Prayer #4

Off Chris Milam's forthcoming album Kids These Days (out April 7 on Namesake Records).

LYRICS:
I see her only in cold weather, in lieu of something better
While the band plays I watch her roll her eyes
Then buried under covers, incidental lovers
I try in vain to keep some heat inside
	And winter draws her shade over the world
	And I can’t break away from these Coldweather Girls

Huddled in a backseat I can hear her heartbeat
Start its same syncopated song
And while she acts indifferent, I can hear it whispering
“Come on...come on.”

So arm in arm at 3AM, I see her crooked charm again
She greets the frozen winds and laughs them off
But coat and directionless, I’m probably not built for this
“Come on,” she says, “it’s too late to stop.”
	And winter draws her shade over the world
	And I can’t break away from these Coldweather Girls

Morning comes irreverent, I lose my frame of reference
Dawn’s just another shade of gray
So I pass the nights as I can, cause they appear clearer than
The silent fog that smothers every day

And the season’s just an alibi, I tell myself the reasons why
Something better’s just around the bend
From inside this silver cloud, the little light that it allows
I can’t see where this weather ends
	And winter draws her shade over the world
	And I can’t break away from these Coldweather Girls

I hear it only in cold weather, in lieu of something better
The windows sigh, the band starts its song
And I fear it in December, but I hear it and remember:
“Come on....come on.”

All content copyright Milam Music 2017.

Coldweather Girls

Off Chris Milam's forthcoming album Kids These Days (out April 7 on Namesake Records).

VIDEO: http://bit.ly/tmsyoutube

LYRICS:
Asked my teacher, asked my priest, asked the poets what’s wrong with me
Oh, Jesus Christ to Rimbaud
Tell me something, tell me something I don’t know

Called your mama, your sister too, and I asked the doctor what’s wrong with you
Something broke your heart so long ago
Tell me something, tell me something I don’t know
	
Turn up the radio, and every tune is some working man in designer boots
So you got the blues?  I’ve heard how they go 
Tell me something, tell me something I don’t know

You look good in green, you look good alone
You look pretty high, you look better low
Gonna take you down, gonna bring you home
Tell me something, tell me something I don’t know

All content copyright Milam Music 2017.

Tell Me Something I Don't Know

Off Chris Milam's forthcoming album Kids These Days (out April 7 on Namesake Records).

LYRICS:
Autumn, are you getting cold, Autumn you can have my coat
Autumn, won’t you let me let myself out
Autumn, the year is ending and the sky is snowing leaves
Yeah, it’s getting colder, yeah it’s almost over now

Autumn, all the birds are singing by the feeder that you filled
Autumn, all the birds are running pretty low
Autumn, all your birds are singing and the sky’s standing still
Or maybe they’re just talking, maybe they’re just talking til they go

My hands too numb to shake
My heart too tired to fake
It’s all that I can take
Stay if you’re staying, say what you’re saying
It’s not the break but the breaking

My hands too numb to shake
My heart too tired to fake
It’s more than I can take
Just stay if you’re staying, say what you’re saying
It’s not the break, honey it’s not the break but the breaking

Autumn, are you getting cold, Autumn you can have my coat
Autumn, won’t you let me let myself out

All Content Copyright Milam Music 2017.

Autumn

Off Chris Milam's forthcoming album Kids These Days (out April 7 on Namesake Records).

LYRICS:
She came on like Easter day, Otis and the angels sang
I came off like Halloween, masked as a libertine
	Life before her flashed, I left it at her door
	Bared in the dawn spread across the floor saying
	
She went out like New Years, we’ll only go down from here
I went in like Valentine, family ring, Spanish wine
	Life with her flashed, I cut it all in two
	I took half and she took half and half of my half too
	
We spent Independence Day watching all the fireworks fade	
What you want, what you got, half lives, second thoughts

All Content Copyright Milam Music 2017.

Half Life

"Kids These Days" is the lead-off single (March 3) for Chris Milam's forthcoming album (Kids These Days, out April 7 on Namesake Records).

LYRICS:
Shot out of my driveway like a warhead, headed south on 55
Stopped north of Windermere and overheard a cashier talk about kids these days a while
Can’t remember ever feeling rested, can’t recall the last lunch I ate
I just picked a road years ago and I’ve gone every way but slow, I’d sooner be nothing than late

Oh, hang with me now, we’ll get through it somehow
I’m trying
Take a look in my eye, if I say that I’m fine
I’m lying

Try to touch the world outside my windshield and I try to feel connected to our song
There’s a picture on your phone of me at ten years old, I don’t know where that kid has gone

Every day, every mile, every casual smile, every story retold, every joke getting old
While you wanna talk around it, I’m screaming it out, babe
I’m dying

Come back to our place after midnight, find you sleeping on my side
Whisper “I love you,” like I’m supposed to, and while I watch your dreaming from outside
I’m sighing

All Content Copyright Milam Music 2017.

Kids These Days

"MY-lum." Musician. Memphis. Only in it for the money. 

Bio:
“I might not make it home, but I’ll make it through the night,” sings Chris Milam on the penultimate track of his new album, Meanwhile (out April 24). It’s a fitting—if ominous—coda for an album that explores the ways we survive periods of transition.

For the Memphis singer-songwriter, and for most of us, the last few years have been a time of seismic transition. Supporting the 2017 release of his critically-acclaimed breakout Kids These Days (“Invites—and earns—the Paul Simon comparisons,” raved American Songwriter), Milam toured across North America and the UK, played festivals and theaters, and collaborated with heroes (e.g. Stax legend William Bell). Musically, things had never been better.

But personally, Milam marked these years by his dad’s losing battle with multiple myeloma (i.e. blood cancer). Diagnosis, remission, relapse, prognosis, hospice, and finally rest. As such, Meanwhile takes death head-on: the personal-as-political anguish of “In the Blood”; the suicidal ideation of “Lonely Living Right”; the playground elegy of “Dogwood Spring.”

More broadly, Meanwhile is an album about loss. Loss of a father, yes, but also a long-term relationship. The album’s first three tracks form an out-of-order love trilogy that establish the album’s themes while breaking the expectation of a simple, linear experience. As he signals: “I can’t steer my story straight.”

Following a serious hand injury, loss even extended to music. “I had nerve damage in my left hand that took nine months to heal,” Milam explains. “In 2017, I played 150 shows. In 2018, I played 2.” What does a musician do when they can’t play music?

“It’s tough, but it’s tough for everyone,” insists Milam, quick to deflect. “There’s a weight in the air. When the world is full of existential dread, palpable dread, how do you just get through the day?”

Meanwhile offers ten perspectives on that question with a sonic warmth and lyrical intimacy befitting an album from 2020 or 1970. From a darkly gorgeous portrait of substance abuse (“Whiskey In The Morning”), to a crack-up-after-break-up (“Crazy From The Outside In”) to cheeky self-satire (“Girl In Every Town”), this album crucially focuses on the exterior by way of the interior. The result is a warm, deeply intimate, open-hearted portrait of a broken psyche.

To achieve it, Milam again enlisted producer Toby Vest & engineer Pete Matthews (High/Low Recording in Memphis), the same duo Milam found a creative kinship with on Kids These Days. A small but stellar crew filled out the arrangements: keys legend Rick Steff (Lucero), guitar hero Steve Selvidge (The Hold Steady), trumpet ace Marc Franklin (Gregg Allman), and Milam’s longtime touring partner, cellist Elen Wroten. More contributions came from High/Low’s literal-and-figurative family of musicians. Milam describes the process as true collaboration:

“I wanted to work quickly. I wanted it to feel like a snapshot, a moment in time. I gave everybody one direction: pretty, unexpected, broken. When we got all the performances, musical threads revealed themselves. Different instruments represented different memories, feelings, even voices in my head. The lyrics have always echoed each other; now the arrangements did, too. Toby and Pete did an amazing job sifting through those sounds and helping me tell the story sonically. Honestly, many folks who were involved had recently lost parents. It shows. I simply couldn’t have made this album with anyone else.”

Depending on the day (or listening order), you can walk away from Meanwhile heavy, empty, haunted or hopeful. Maybe all of the above. That’s ultimately the spirit of the album, and the what’s found in our own personal “meanwhiles”: a life connecting dots.

ChrisMilam