Things to Do   Next Song | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins

Lui - vocals, guitar
Dana - harmony vocals, mandolin
Rose - accordion
Jenny - acoustic bass
Doug - drums

I got a lot to do this morning, so much on my mind
A restless gnawing in my gut, I know I'm way behind
If I keep pluggin' hard till midnight I'm bound to get ahead
Maybe catch up to where I was when I got out of bed

        I gotta finish up this list of things to do
        Time waits for no one, so they say, it must be true.

Me? Compulsive? gimme a break, I have to work this way
I got a family to support, I've got to get that raise
I've got to keep my job, you see, though it may drive me berserk
'Cause I gotta buy a brand new car so I can get to work

I took a weekend seminar, success was guaranteed
Put method in your madness, you'll have all the time you need
To get organized, keep on track, put all things in their place
Don't know quite where I'm going, but I know I'm making haste

Don't bother me with reason, got no time to edify
Can't interrupt my train of thought but I can't remember why
It's getting late, one thing more, before I hit the hay
Make a list up for tomorrow, get a jump start on my day

©1998 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI


Loose the Ties   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Dana Robinson

Lui - vocals, guitar
Dana - harmony vocals, mandolin
Pete - fiddle
Andrew - acoustic bass
Doug - drums

Will you loose the ties that keep you from me now
Will you show me how to walk that way?
Send to me a light, and tell me that a time will come
We will soon be one, and long no more, no more

This road has been kind to my feet, the path through here is old
I have trusted in its twists and turns, as I've walked with my eyes closed
I navigate the nighttime sky, sights focused on a star
Then that place will move falling round a curve and I question where you are

This is my home, I've settled here, these earthly things I know
I hear the cuckoo and the mockingbird, though I seek the blackest crow
In this valley's easy palm, beneath the hilltown farms
Seven Sisters will calmly wait for midnight salvage in your arms

©1997 Threshold Music


Saudade   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins

"Saudade" is a Portuguese word meaning, as best I can translate it, a longing or yearning for someone or someplace you love so dearly that even missing that person or place is a wonderful feeling. But the beauty of the language and the Brasilian culture, which I was immersed in for a year when I lived in Curitiba, is that it has so much its own flavor you simply can't do it justice in translation.

Lui - vocals, guitar
Dana - guitar
Johnny - fiddle
Jenny - acoustic bass
Doug - percussion

Pode falar em portuguêse das coisas do coração
Pode falar de saudade, tristeza, allegria
Em inglês não pode cantar de verdade
Estó aqui nas lembranças cantando tão sozinha

Eu gostaria de ficar agora com vôçe
Gostaria de dizer das palavras tão bellinhas
Mas eu estó sozinha tão cheia de saudade
Como o meu coração é cheia de amor

In the language of Brasil, the language of the heart
One can speak of one's joy, or of sadness or yearning
In our language there is no such sweet abundance
I am left with my memories, singing so alone

How I yearn to be with you to share this moment
How I yearn to speak these words of beauty
Here am I alone, so filled with longing
As my heart is filled, is filled with love

©1997 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI


Rarest Rose   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins

Lui - vocals, guitar
Dana - mandolin
Gideon - cello

I have built this prison, stone upon stone
And the walls rise up so dreary
Day upon day it's grown and grown
And my life goes on forlornly.

And by the gate I buried the key
Which should I choose would set me free

Roses I grew of a beautiful hue
and the joy they brought me was deep and true

When my lover reached out to pluck one bloom
He pricked his hand on the sharpest thorn

How could I bear my lover's pain?
I let those roses go to ruin

Last night I dreamed of the rarest rose
Out past these walls I saw it grow

And in my hand I held the key
All cast in a delicate filigree

Beyond these walls I shall step this day
These walls that rise so dreary
And search I shall till I find that place
And my life goes on forlornly.

And I shall fetch that brightest rose
Past these walls that rise so dreary
To plant in my garden that it might grow
And my life go on most joyfully.

©1997 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI


Leaving Fort Knox   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins

Lui - vocals, guitar
Dana - mandolin
Rose - accordion
Jenny - acoustic bass
Doug - drums, percussion

You been building your walls of mortar and stone
I been buttin' my head up against them
I got battered up good this one last time
Gonna find me a new way around them

You been the big man, making the rules
I been trying my best to obey them
All the time that I wasted learning your games
Now I find I got no need to play them

You defended your fort at the fork of the river
And determined to hide me away there
First I fought to get in, then I fought to get out
Now I simply am walking away dear

Gonna build me a bridge
Gonna cross it just once
And I ain't lookin' backwards again

You been holding me down, you been watching me bleed
I been walkin' a fine line to please you
Now you'll get no more pleasure from seeing my pain
'Cause you'll just see my back as I leave you
You will get no more pleasure from watching me bleed
You will just see my back as I leave you

©1997 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI


Spark/Wings   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins

Lui - vocals, banjo
Dana - guitar, mandolin
Pete - fiddle

You shine so brightly, I a spark
That shows only in darkest dark
My only hope a shelter deep where find a restful sleep.
There coax this spark into a flame
Coax flame into a brightsome blaze
And swear to hold my own someday, and hold my own someday.

My balance lost when you're around
Off center pulled, I hit the ground
Where I am swallowed in the sound of your reverberation.

You're in my blood, my every cell
To turn away I gather will
Yet in my memory breathe you still, oh I do breathe you still.
My tongue remembers dusky taste
Of mingled essence as we lay
My mind pleads there is naught to gain, my heart won't pry away.

©1999 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI


The Dark Silkie   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins

Lui - vocals, guitar
Johnny - fiddle
Gideon - cello

She shed it willingly, the dark fur glistening on the shore
Stood on the sun-warmed sand, her new limbs to explore
She spied him watching her, his beauty most entrancing
So strange yet so familiar, she could not turn away.
They walked in silence on the dunes until the nighttime
He asked her would she come along and with him stay.

        He did not take it from her, make no mistake, she made the offer
        Folded it carefully, and tucked it safe away.

Those early days she knew much pleasure in his company
Yet though he claimed her heart, her soul was of the sea
Sometimes she'd lead her children down to play in shallow waters
But naught could ever ease her longing for the deep.
Salt water to salt water, mourning loss she hopes for nothing
Bitter acceptance of a choice she daren't betray

        Why weep you salty tears when all of life awaits you here?
        Why cast your dreams upon the waters of the sea?

Still as the shadows fall she stands atop a crag most barren
Waves crashing far below, her heart tuned to the sea

        Deep in her longingness, tears the mournful cry of Raven
        Tugs at her heartstrings, with a call she can't deny

Lifting aside the rock so long ago set resolutely
There lies the sealskin hidden safe and damp and cool
Slipping within its folds, a catch of breath, the faintest trembling
Her heart is pounding as she turns her head toward home

        One glance behind her, but a moment's hesitation
        She glides into the sea, her movements strong and sure

©1997 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI


Green Light   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins

Lui - vocals, guitar
Dana - harmony vocals, banjo
Pete - fiddle
Andrew - acoustic bass

Is this love, can this be love?
The heart floods full till it must break
Innocent as a rabbit moon
So big on the horizon

        Danger, rough road ahead
        Is warning signals' prophecy
        The strongest pull, mystery
        Green light is all the heart believes

There is no hope for the great white hope
No faith in pledge or guarantee
The only true vow, none at all
For nothing sure can surely be

This road is not as I had hoped
Yet I may find reluctantly
This steeper path I blindly tread
Must be precisely what I need

        Danger, rough road ahead
        Red lights are flashing bright at me
        The strongest pull, mystery
        Green light is all the heart believes
        Green light is all the heart believes

©1998 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI


Song of the Waters   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins

Lui - vocals, guitar
Dana - banjo
Pete - fiddle
Andrew - acoustic bass

Long years of trials, long years of sorrow
Parched as a desert, cold to the bone
Now I can't stay in this wasteland no longer
For the thirst that I'm feeling won't leave me alone

Now people may judge me for leaving my children
How well I know, for I judge me as well
I pray my children won't begrudge me the joy I am finding
For I'm setting a path they may follow themselves

North from the foothills, I come to the valley
On up to the mountains where the rain's pouring down
And it's quenching my thirst as it nurtures the yarrow
I will comfort my sorrow in this fertile ground

And in these lush mountains I will find me a lover
Soft as the ferns in their bed by the stream
I'll lay you down gently in this cool mossy hollow
Hear the song of the waters flowing full in the spring

I'll rest my head on your shoulder, as we step out together
Just follow your heart, I feel it beating with mine
The blood in our veins is flowing in concert
Thicker than water, richer than wine

And I'll lay you down gently in this cool mossy hollow
Hear the song of the waters, in your blood and mine

©1997 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI


Mystery Play   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins

Lui - vocals, guitar

Lately my thoughts have been caught up in winding
'Round a question that's tickling the back of my mind:
Out of billions of souls on Earth at one time
Why are some drawn together while the rest pass on by?

Now this is not about partnering, marriage, and such
Please don't offer the moon, I've been there enough
I'm not waxing romantic, and I trust you won't start
For I will not give lightly a piece of my heart. Yet

        You remind me of someone I'd like to know
        I am drawn to you, sure as one hand to another
        Were we lovers or family some long life ago?
        You remind me of someone I'd like to know.

Walking beside you, our steps match in rhythm
I laugh at your jokes, and you laugh at mine
We're two ends of a magnet, determined to meet
You're a soft comfy chair I settle into with ease.

        Another lifetime I'd have fallen in love with you
        Swept away by my feelings, ashamed and confused
        But just now it's enough to be walking with you
        Let the mystery play as it will.

And when we're apart, I'll not pine for you
An occasional phone call or an email will do
To remind me you're there, and ever my friend
And once in a blue moon, I may see you again

        Another lifetime I may fall in love

©1997 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI


Won't Miss You Darlin'   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins

Lui - vocals, guitar
Dana - vocals, mandolin

Driving slow in dark of night
Eye on the moon softly aglow
I find contentment in her light
Ever closer to my home.

While I've been gone the creek has swollen
Vines were touched by an early frost
All is not lost, though colors fallen
And I won't miss you anymore.

        I won't miss you, darlin', I won't miss you anymore
        I'll draw the water from the well
        I'll walk in peace upon the hill
        And I won't miss you darlin' anymore.

When winter's frost etches the pane
Pastures burrow deep beneath the snow
In evening stillness I'll watch the fire's flame
And I won't miss you anymore.

Those lines you've drawn, now I'm not needing
To color inside them like before
I turn the page, I paint a picture
Where I don't miss you anymore.


©1998 Molly Gamblin Music/BMI


Swimming to the Other Side  | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Pat Humphries

Lui - vocals, guitar
Dana - harmony vocals, mandolin
Andrew - acoustic bass

        We are living neath the great big dipper, we are washed by the very same rain
        We are swimming in the stream together, some in power and some in pain
        We can worship this ground we walk on, cherishing the beings that we live beside
        Loving spirits will live forever, we're all swimming to the other side

I am alone, I am searching, hungering for answers in my time
I am balanced on the brink of wisdom, I'm impatient to receive a sign
I move forward with my senses open, imperfection it be my crime
In humility I will listen, we're all swimming to the other side.

On this journey through thoughts and feelings, binding intuition, my head, my heart,
I am gathering the tools together, I'm preparing to do my part
All of those who have come before me band together and be my guide
Loving lessons that I will follow, we're all swimming to the other side.

When we get there we'll discover all of the gifts we've been given to share
Have been with us since life's beginning and we never noticed they were there
We can balance on the brink of wisdom, never recognizing that we've arrived
Loving spirits will live together, we're all swimming to the other side.

© 1992 Pat Humphries, Moving Forward Music/BMI


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