A True Nashville Story

They met for the first time on the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice of 1999. In this small town in the plains a baby coming into the world was special, let alone two on the same night. Sylvette was born in the towns namesake family, Adams. Ford, on the other hand, was from a group of outsiders. His dad had come to the sleepy town 10 years ago as the town’s doctor. While the townsfolk had come to accept them long ago, they were still outsiders.

Of course kids don’t know much about those kinds of things. All Sylvette and Ford knew was that in this county of less than 1,000 people they were the only two kinds of their age. They just grew up together. That was how it was. Until the year they turned 13 and Ford got a guitar for a birthday present.

When you’re that age and live in an agriculture area and are from a family that doesn’t have a farm, summers can be long and boring. That summer Ford devoured any and all “how to play a guitar” videos he could find online. Eventually, something clicked and before he knew it he knew three chords. All he needed now was some Truth.

That same summer Sylvette began to realize that her family wasn’t the same as the one that founded the town by a long shot. Her mom coped by being a drunk and her dad coped by staying the fields every day. If her English teacher back in 7th grade hadn’t made keeping a journal part of the classwork, Sylvette might have turned to something seedier to deal with her reality.

And that was their life for the few years; Ford practiced guitar and Sylvette wrote.

Things changed for both of them on their 16th birthdays. Ford got a drivers license and a beat-up old Ford pickup truck. It seems Ford’s mom had a weird sense of humor and this moment was why she insisted on naming him Ford all those years ago. Boredom can make folks do some weird shit.

With that truck they had a little bit of freedom.

That’s when they started to plan.

Being from the middle of nowhere just means you can only go somewhere. Ford and Sylvette decided that they would go to Nashville. Sylvette’s grandma had an old camper that she gave them in secret on the condition that they both finish high school. With an agreement made, they worked on getting it road worthy. While they waited until they graduated, Sylvette & Ford learned how to write songs.

The songs weren’t much, but they didn’t know that and when graduation day arrived they skipped town in the middle of the night. Four days later they arrived in Nashville and went directly to Music Row and parked at the corned of Chet Atkins and Music Square.

They were ready for the big time.