Broken Year

A Bridge to Nowhere (Hopeville Pond)

"Broken Year" will be the first single I release in 2021. It’s a song that has lived with me for years —carried across stages, sung beneath warm lights, shared with audiences when I performed with The BeeKeepers. But somehow, life’s tide always pulled me away before I could truly capture it in a recording.

Now, it feels right. It feels like the perfect song to step into a new year —even though it was born in the closing days of 2017.

Like most songs I write, "Broken Year" began with an emotional experience that asked for a voice. It came from the ache of a breakup —the slow, quiet heartbreak that comes when second chances don't find their way home.

At the time, my heart was tangled in questions. The judges in my mind were relentless, trying to make sense of the wreckage left by an avoidant love —the kind where closeness is feared and emotional intimacy is kept always just out of reach."You say it is what it is... You’ve got nothing left to give."

Those words still echo sometimes, soft and bittersweet.

But healing, I’ve learned, often comes when we shift the lens. "Broken Year" is not just a song about disappointment. It’s about forgiveness — about choosing to look back with tenderness instead of blame. It’s about understanding that avoidance, too, is its own kind of sorrow. A sadness carried silently, often invisibly.

Over time, "Broken Year" has grown along with me. When Mandy and I performed it together with The Beekeepers, we felt the song needed something more —a bridge to carry the final emotion home.

We added a new section, one that lifts the curtain even further: "All the whiskey in the world couldn’t get it back to good." Because sometimes, no matter how deep the love, some things simply can’t be fixed.

And maybe that’s not tragedy. Maybe that's just the bittersweet, beautiful way life makes room for new beginnings.

"Broken Year" is a song of acceptance. A song of letting go with grace. A love letter to all the pieces that couldn’t stay.

And I’m so ready to finally share it with you.

Here are the lyrics to "Broken Year."

"We’ve traveled this road before Crossed every bridge and more You say it is what it is You’ve got nothing left to give. Let the judges be fair This was a broken year Let the judges be kind Lookin’ back on our sweet time. We’ve climbed this mountain before Aimed for the skies and more And wasn’t I the scent on your skin And you were my only reason Let the judges be fair This was a broken year Let the judges be kind Lookin’ back on our sweet time. We’ve walked this valley before Found comfort on familiar shores And didn’t I put our love first; didn’t I quench your thirst? Let the judges be fair This was a broken year Let the judges be kind Lookin’ back on our sweet time

We played fiddles by the fire Singing songs of love and desire We drank whiskey like it was wine And we laughed until we cried And we drank more than we should Tryin’ to get it back to good Oh, we drank more than we should Tryin to get it back to good Oh, we drank more than we should Tryin to get it back to good

But We did the best we could

We did the best we could We did the best we could We did the best we could We did the best we could We did the best we could"

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#SylviesSongs #SylvieAbate #BrokenYear #Songwriting #TheMakingOfASong #WhenSecondChancesFail #AvoidantLove