The unique story of a million bands.
Dreams Run High is a semi-autobiographical song cycle, following fictional protagonist Ruby, a budding singer-songwriter/guitarist, who knows her heart early on, pursues her passion, and makes a life and living on the road, creating, losing and recapturing her identity over the years in the process.
As we follow her musical awakening, we take the journey along with Ruby as she moves from hopeful adolescence to assured adulthood, and from embracing stardom to examining the cost of success to establishing existential equilibrium, sharing her self-discovery about who she is and what she wants and needs from life – and the differences between the two.
Inspired by the band’s own experiences and that of fellow musicians befriended along the way, Dreams is a hopeful, humbling, celebratory and soul-baring narrative on following your muse, making music, and finding belonging in unexpected people and places – and, ultimately, within yourself.
Here’s the narrative of Ruby’s story, as shared by Smoke Ring Days. Please feel free to sing along with her, and us – when we stand together, we’re never alone.
Dreams Run High
Part I: Symphony
My name is Ruby
I stayed home from school today
‘Cause I heard on the radio’s
A guitar giveaway
Just one call
Wins it all
It’s nothing fancy
Free is all we can afford
But it sounds like a symphony
Each time I strum a chord
Makes me feel
That I’m real
Interlude:
At thirteen, I am up in my bedroom
Singing to my cat every night
In my dreams, we are down in the subway
Smokey, pass the hat to the right
Come fifteen, I am so all alone now
Longing to feel whole and alive
Music gives me hope, helps me cope, and
Singing saves my soul; I survive
I wanna learn to play
Like my old neighbor, Sam
A boy who never quite fit in
Until he joined a band
Found his home
Not alone
Ran into Reese last week
Who once went to my school
But he marched to a different drum
And kids can be so cruel
Made a choice
Found their voice
So now we play each day
With four more friends we’ve met
And I think we sound pretty good
Though no one’s heard us yet
Still we try
Dreams run high
Interlude:
At sixteen, I am still in-betweening
Wanting both for care and control
Playing keeps me sane, gives me meaning
If I dare, can this make me whole
Seventeen, we are all so excited
Twenty started slow, then we raged
Twenty-one found our flame had ignited
Welcome to the show – take the stage
Part II: We All Belong
We’re playing around all these cities and towns
And building a following, climbing the bill
We sleep in a van bought online second-hand
And last-minute bookings we’re happy to fill
We’ve signed to a label that’s big around here
Though out in LA no one knows who we are
They say they have faith that the music we make
Will soon find its place and that we will go far
Chorus (band version):
And all that we’ve wanted in our lives from this world
Is to pour out our hearts on a stage in a song
To be here and reach out, and let you know this:
That we’re in this together, and we all belong
‘Cause beauty is skin deep, compassion runs deeper
It warms all it touches straight down to the bone
So show that you care, yeah, and sing along with us
We see you and hear you, and you’re not alone
Our old lead guitarist, he found a new love
And he up and he split for a job on the reg
Our label head’s son is now axe number one
So we get more attention and slightly more bread
We sang and we joked on The Joe Franklin Show
Back on local TV, yeah, we really had fun
The viewer reaction has gained us some traction
And royalty payments that regularly come
Chorus:
We all nearly quit after Jody got holy
And took a hiatus to fast and to pray
But he and his bass are both back in their place
And we’re better than ever now all’s back in play
A couple of records did well in the West
So we’ve moved up at shows to the number two slot
Now, when we appear, people clap and they cheer
As we give them our forty with all that we’ve got
Chorus:
This morning at eight came a call from our agent
To tell us our single’s about to go gold
And we all danced like crazy outside in the car park
Were feeling on fire in spite of the cold
So we’re drinking a toast as we head to the coast
For a headlining show somewhere everyone’s played
Who’d ever have known that the day I stayed home
With my cat and the phone it could turn out this way
Chorus:
Part III: Time Moves On
The years they slip on by, and friends, they come and go
We all say “hey, let’s keep in touch,” though no one does, you know
Here, then gone
Time moves on
When all your dreams come true are not quite what you thought
And what was once so pure and clear’s now something sold and bought
Let it ride
Or turn the tide
The road it rocks and rolls, unfolding out ahead
With every endless mile we ride, it’s you that fills my head
Strong and kind
Was I blind
I left your bed this morning, ‘fore the sky grew light
And I will lie alone this evening, wondering if it might
Be too late
Be my fate
To spend a lifetime chasing ghosts of what we were
And living just for one-night stands on stages that all blur
In my mind
Left behind
My heart returns me to a place both near and far
As I think back to what I felt when I played that guitar
Symphony
All in me
The time has come for holding on to what will last
The hour’s now for letting go of what’s been here and passed
If I care
I must dare
Find how to still be me, despite a change in plan
And finally learn to share my life, while staying who I am
Lose control
To find my soul
Part IV: All That I Wanted
Chorus (Ruby’s version):
And all that I wanted in my life from this world
Was to pour out my heart on a page in a song
To reach out to others and let them know this girl
I see you and hear you, and we all belong
‘Cause beauty is skin deep, compassion runs deeper
It warms all it touches straight down to the bone
So show that you care, yeah, and sing along with me
When we stand together, we’re never alone
We’re never alone, whoah no, we’re never alone
My name is Ruby, I stayed home from school today
© 4/2026 Richard Eppedio and C.R. Keyser-Posner/Smokesongs Ltd.
Words by Smoke Ring Days
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