If you're having trouble downloading,
go to lukebrindley.bandcamp.com/album/invitation-to-joy!

Lyrics For The New Record 29 May 2015

The new record comes out next week! I am releasing the lyrics BEFORE the record it out.

Download a pdf here.

Pre-order the record and get some other cool stuff here.

DC-area release show June 5 at Jammin Java, Vienna, VA. Get tickets here.

“The words are the important thing. Don’t worry about tunes. Take a tune, sing high when they sing low, sing fast when they sing slow, and you’ve got a new tune.” - Woody Guthrie

CRACK OF LIGHT

Is that the sound of dancers at the wedding feast
Or soldiers marching in the city street?
Even the cries of joy and weeping sound the same
Every whisper of wisdom gets drowned out
By the relentless modern screaming sound
Can you still hear your true name?

I need a compass - I need a center
I’ve got vertigo tonight
I was born in darkness
Looking for a crack of light

My hands are raw from feeling my way along the walls
Knees are busted from breaking my fall
In a world where love and mercy make no sense
Suddenly there's this tiny hand in mine
And I’m leading the way though I’m nearly blind
And can barely see to take the next step

There’s a faint glimmer up ahead
Like sunlight glinting off the edge of a knife
I was born in darkness
Looking for a crack of light

So let the fire of understanding burn off the haze of superstition
The pruning sword of truth cut back these apparitions 
Like the night gives way to the dawn
I hear echoes of a song from long before
Maybe older than we've had these human forms
And it keeps me pressing on - pressing on

Through this land beneath the shadow of death
Through noonday dark as midnight
I was born in darkness…
Toward a peace i might never find
Like some ever-receding horizon line
I was born in darkness
Looking for a crack of light
I was born in darkness
Looking for a crack of light

KIT CAR

They gave me gasoline
In champagne flutes
Dry bones
In versace suits

A Ferrari body
On a Pontiac chassis
You wouldn't believe the kind of things
They tried to get passed me

I want real love
Real love
Real love
I’ve got to have it
Got to have it

Satin sheets 
Over a bed of nails
Incisors snarling
Behind the virginal veil

Bloody hands
Slid in velvet gloves
Their own hubris
Like favor from above

I want real love
Real love
Real love
I’ve got to have it
Got to have it

CAN’T BE SATISFIED

The judge and the jury
Waiting at the hearing
The alibi turns up dead
The witnesses disappearing
Who's gonna gimme the truth?
Who's gonna testify?
I can't be - I can't be satisfied


Sucking on the crack pipe of power
High in the penthouse suite
I bought everything they sold me
On the tv and magazines
This bloodline carries curses
I drained the bottle dry
Still I can't be - I can't be satisfied

I’ve run to the end of highway
Turn my vision inside to see
Knelt with the congregation
Trying to believe
Everything I love's disappearing 
A beautiful chord rings out and dies
And I can't be...

My baby's love is it's own continent
So heavy I could cry
Still I can't be...
I can't be satisfied
I can't be...
I can't be satisfied

BROKEN VOICES

What colors do you see on the blank canvas?
What scenes on the empty stage?
Give us a light to pierce the dark
Speak what you feel not what you think you should say 

What do u see when u look thru the lens?
What songs on the blank page?
World of beauty - world of terror
Don't be afraid - don't look away

The truth is sung by broken voices
The truth is sung by broken voices
Broken voices - just like yours

Every song is unfinished
Every cry goes unheard
We all speak a broken language
Every sentence - every word

The truth is sung by broken voices
The truth is sung by broken voices
Broken voices - just like yours

This moment is now - ancient and forever
These days are for making the pieces whole
Maybe you lose part of yourself
Maybe you find your soul

The truth is sung by broken voices
The truth is sung by broken voices
The truth is sung by broken voices
Broken voices - just like yours
Broken voices - just like ours

ROCK AND ROLL

I must have missed the big rock ending 
The drum roll - the cymbal crash
It was just a slow fadeout
No encore - no guitar smashed

Fog machine is sputtering
The roadies sweeping the stage
I take my bow to an empty bar
As the door slams and the feedback fades

It's rock and roll
Rock and roll 
We used to be young, now we're old
All that glitters ain’t gold
It’s rock and roll yeah
Rock and roll

I took my songs to Nashville
To get some pretty faces to sing em
A buddy from back in Virginia
Asked me if I’d bring him

Well, find out who's got ur back
When you need help to stand
And who your friends are
When the money starts changing hands

Chorus

Crushed cans on the floor
Like casings neath a gun
Up all night fighting a battle
That nobody won

God damn the day I first picked up
A guitar and a pen
But I’ll lay down tonight, get up tomorrow 
And do it all over again

Chorus

It's rock and roll
Rock and roll 
We used to be young, now we're old
It didn’t turn out exactly like we were told
It’s rock and roll yeah
Rock and roll

BE LOVE

You don't need to check the going rate
You don't need to pass the collection plate

You don't need to wait till the camera's on
You don't need me to sing you this song

Just be love
Be love
Be love 
Be love

Just be love
Be love
Be love 
Be love now

You don't need to wait for the right time
You don't need to look for wonders or signs

You don't need some fancy degree
Or understandIng of deep mystery

Chorus

Instrumental Break

You don't need to wait till your friends are looking
You don't need to memorize some book and

You don't need to wait till you understand
Just need an open heart and an open hand

Chorus

Instrumental Break

MERCY

The city’s on fire
There’s death in the air
Followed the sirens to the crime scene
But I was already there
We're all watching and waiting
While the refuge of hope burns
Is there anything worth saving?
We got nowhere to turn

I’ve walked these streets in ruins
I've heard all the stories
The faint whispers
Of coming glory

But it's a carnival of chaos
As festival of fools
There are wolves in the pulpits
Snakes in the pews

I’m calling out for mercy
Mercy come and rock my soul
I’m calling out for mercy
Mercy come and rock my soul
Mercy come and rock my soul
If I had my way 
I'd tear this building down
Start all over 
In some other town

Maybe I’m holding out
For a sign from above
Heavenly choirs
Angels or a dove

Chorus
Now I'm staring down darkness
Of the deepest kind
Barely holding on to this hope
That’s yours and mine

If ever we needed it 
We need it right now
Tell me you’re with me
And never back down

Chorus

THE WORLD I WANT

Give me peace within and without
More power to the ones who heal
The strength to speak not what we ought to say, 
But what we really feel

More time with this sweet family of mine
Truth without superstition
Enough money to pay the bills would be nice
And love without condition

That’s the world I want
That’s the world I want
That’s the world I want
I want it…I want it

More time to make music with my friends
And be present right here, right now
Comfort for the broken hearted
Plenty of laughter to go around

Free from invisible chains that bind us
My spirit lifted on wings of song
Free from false beliefs that blind us
A legacy of love when I’m gone…

That’s the world I want
That’s the world I want
That’s the world I want
I want it…I want it

If there’s a stand I gotta take - I’ll take it
If there’s a hand I gotta play - I’ll play it
If there’s a plan I gotta make - I’ll make it
Whatever it takes - whatever it takes 

That’s the world I want
That’s the world I want
That’s the world I want
I want it…I want it

SONG ON THE WIND

Come quickly to the window 
I see fire in the streets below
Riots and seeds of revolution 
Borne on ones and zeros

I see men disfigured by desperation
Ruled by lusts and appetites
Like the coyote and his carrion
The junkie and her spike

I see a young mother and her child
Forsaken in the night
While the preacher primps like a prom queen
Until his hair is just right

I see black rain stain the concrete
Village woken by the turbine whine
In the silence after the strafing
I hear the mother's cry

I see em storming the beach at normandy
Young men - born to die
I see jesus in the garden
Asking his father, “why?”

I hear a song on the wind
I hear a song on the wind
I hear a song on the wind
Keeps me hoping, working, and pressing on

I felt like a unwelcome stranger 
In my own home
Laying next to her in our bed
Never felt so alone

Our hearts were cold and our souls
Were torn end to end
But we made it through
Never going back again

I hear a song on the wind
I hear a song on the wind
I hear a song on the wind
Keeps me hoping, open, and healing

I held my newborn daughter 
As she first opened her eyes
I held my grandmother's hand
As she breathed her final sigh

When I see all my days behind me
Lightning flash of my lifespan is through
In your hour of darkness
I hope that you 

Hear a song on the wind
Hear a song on the wind
Hear a song on the wind
Keeps you hoping and working

I hear a song on the wind
I hear a song on the wind
I hear a song on the wind
Keeps me singing, hoping, and pressing on

I hear it in the green room
Hear it in the delivery room 
In the supermarket
In line at the dmv
On the boardwalk 
I hear it right now 
Can you hear it right now?