Dance Me 'Round   Next Song | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins, ©1984 Molly Gamblin Music (BMI)

Vocal - Lui
Percussion - Lou D'Agostino
Mandolin - Joe Gerhard
Dulcimer - Leo Kretzner
For driving all thought from one's head, nothing beats dancing - except perhaps infatuation.

You make my heart beat.
You make my head spin.
You make my eyes glow.
You make me warm from within.
Well, I have been in love before, but
        I have never known the likes of this.
So lover, dance me 'round once more,
Dance me 'round and show me what I've missed.

You make my feet dance
You make my heart sing.
You make my eyes see.
You make me warm from within.
My toes start tapping when I hear your voice.
A smile lights your face, its music makes me whole.
So lover, dance me 'round once more.
Dance me 'round, we're dancing soul to soul.

You make the stars shine.
You make the clouds depart.
You make the moon glow.
You make the joy well up in my heart.
With winter solstice on its way, the sun's
        shining brighter than it ever did in May.
So lover, dance me 'round once more,
Dance me 'round and 'round the floor
You show me and I'll show you the way.


All You Can Do   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Martha P. Hogan, ©1984 Cowhand Music (BMI)

Vocals and guitar - Lui
Dulcimer - Leo Kretzner
Fiddles - Joe Gerhard and John Cunningham
Cello - David Darling
Harmony vocals - Sally Rogers & Howard Bursen
Bell tree - John Cunningham
"No one can promise you'll die when you're sleeping, not cry when you're keeping yourself fine and free. There's no reason to search for another way out, only hope you can shout when you leave."

You poured your dreams out
the hours go slowly
You punch in, the only
remembrance of what
you held high, and
relinquished, will
fade in the daylight.
You work, and
collect your pay.

Chorus: All you can do
        See the harvest through
        What you reap is never
        The price you have paid
        All you can do
        See the season out
        And the leaf will die
        And the fruit will drop.

You poured your heart out
to one who recalls
all the love
you have called, she
refused.
You confuse every moment
of moonlight with magic
no true light.
It's tragic,
no stars in her eyes.

Chorus

No one can promise
you'll die when you're
sleeping, not cry
when you're keeping yourself
fine and free.
There's no reason to
search for another
way out. Only hope
you can shout when you leave.

Chorus


Ballad of the White Seal Maid   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Jane Yolen/Lui Collins

Vocal - Lui
Jane Yolen is a prolific writer of poetry, science fiction, and delightful children's stories. She based this poem, from her book Neptune Rising, on the Silkie folklore which abounds in New England as well as Scotland. The Silkies, or Selchies, are seals in the ocean, taking human form on land. Thanks to Bill Kirsch for introducing Jane's poem to me.

There's a fisherman sitting alone on the land
His hands are his craft, his boat is his art
A fisherman sitting alone on the land
A rock, a hard rock in his heart.

There's a selchie maid swimming alone in the bay
Her eyes are the seal's, her heart is the sea
A selchie maid swimming alone in the bay
A pure white seal maiden is she

She comes to the shore and she sheds her seal skin
She dances on sand, dances under the moon
Her hair falls in waves down upon her white skin
And only the seals hear the tune.

Then standing, the fisherman takes her seal skin
Staking his claim to a wife from the sea
He raises his hand, holding up the white skin
Says, "Now you must come home with me."

Oh, weeping she goes, and still weeping she stays
Her hands are her craft, her babes are her art
A year and a year and a year more she stays
A rock, a cold rock, in her heart.

But what is this hid in the fisherman's bag?
It smells like the ocean, it feels like the sea!
A bonny white sealskin closed up in the bag
And "Never a tear more!" cries she.

"Goodbye to the house and goodbye to the shore
Goodbye to the babes that I never could claim
But never a thought to the man left on shore
For selchie's my nature and name."

She puts on the skin and dives back in the sea
The fisherman's cry falls on water-deaf ears
She swims in her sealskin away out to sea
And the fisherman drowns in his tears.


Leaf in the Winter   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins, ©1984 Molly Gamblin Music (BMI)

Vocals & guitar - Lui
Wood flutes & Eb fife - Skip Healy
We live our lives as we must. This song is for someone who stubbornly holds to what she believes.

She spoke in the spring with yet some hope
Summer brought her naught but grief
Her suitcase packed waits by the door
Her eyes averted, her head held high.

Had she but known how years can drag on
Do you think that she would have endured?
But for so long now she's defended your love
Closing her eyes to the truth. And to the
        Promises broken, accusations denied
        Lies you have told her, nights she hid her crying
        She longs for a family, a baby to hold
        Like a leaf in the winter her dreams have grown old.

No one can tell her what she's got to do
No one can feel her pain
but I've seen her grow solemn and bitter and brittle
And I wonder how long before she must break from the

        Promises broken, accusations denied
        Lies you have told her, nights she hid her crying
        She longs for a family, a baby to hold
        Like a leaf in the winter her dreams have grown old.

Springtime is past, summer is gone
Autumn upon us is heralding snow
A young girl steadfast stands alone in the cold
As the cruel winds of winter tear the leaves from their hold.

A full moon lights the truth, the wind only sighing
A leaf in the winter is withering and dying.


There's a Light   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins ©Molly Gamblin Music (BMI)

Vocals - Lui
Oboe - Elizabeth Kieronski
Fender Rhodes - Kim Oler
Bass - Russ Landau
Drums - Victor Steffens
In some of my more lucid moments I realize that the hard times are there to teach us something - of course that insight always comes afterwards.

Chorus:
        There's a light shining down offering a better day
        If your troubles weigh you down, open your eyes and see
        There's a rainbow in the sky promising a brighter life
        When the darkness closes in, open your heart and see.

Sometimes it seems life is just a string of hardships
You can count them like a rosary, you can hold them to your own
You can nourish your pain and sorrow, it'll grow till it surrounds you
Or you can simply open your eyes and see.

How many times have you felt like a stranger
Even in your own home, with the one you hold so dear?
Cold eyes, hard words, and the silences scream louder
But then the tears are falling down, and they cleanse just like the rain.

Open your hearts, talk with one another
Even share the darkness, and the light will shine on in
Care for each other, and your own load will grow lighter
Open your hearts and see.


For Real   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Bob Franke ©1983 Telephone Pole Music (BMI)

Vocal - Lui
Dulcimers - Leo Kretzner
Synthesizer - John Cunningham
Every time I sing this song I learn something new about the song and about myself.

Death took the husband of a neighbor of mine on a highway with a drunk at the wheel.
She told me keep your clean hands off the laundry he left, and don't tell me you know how I feel.
She had a tape that he'd sent her from a Holiday Inn, and she never played it much in the day
but when I heard him say I love you through the window at night I just stayed the hell away.

(Chorus 1 and 2)
There's a hole in the middle of the prettiest life, so the lawyers and the prophets say
Not your father nor your mother nor your lover's gonna ever make it go away.
And there's too much darkness in an endless night to be afraid of the way we feel.
Let's be kind to each other, not forever but for real.

My father never put his parachute on in the Pacific back in World War II.
He said he'd rather go down in familiar flames than get lost in that endless blue.
Well some of that blue got into my eyes, and we never stopped fighting that war
until I first understood about endlessness, and I loved him like never before.

(Repeat first chorus)

It's lucky my daughter got her father's nose and just a little of her mother's eyes.
And we've got just enough love that when the longing takes me, it takes me by surprise.
And I remember that longing from my highway days, though I never could give it a name.
It's lucky I discovered in the nick of time that the man and the child aren't to blame

(Chorus 3)
For the hole in the middle of a pretty good life, I only face it 'cause it's here to stay
Not my father nor my mother nor my daughter nor my lover nor the highway made it go away.
And there's too much darkness in an endless night to be ashamed of the way I feel.
I'll be kind to my loved ones, not forever but for real.

(Final chorus)
Some say God is a lover, some say it's an endless void
Some say both, and some say she's angry and some say he's just annoyed.
But if God felt a hammer in the palm of his hand, then God knows the way we feel.
And love last forever, forever and for real.
Love lasts forever...


Midwinter Night   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins ©1984 Molly Gamblin Music (BMI)

Vocals & piano - Lui
Fiddles - Joe Gerhard & John Cunningham
Cello - David Darling
Bass - Russ Landau
We heat with wood, a Morso in the parlour and a cookstove in the kitchen keep the downstairs warm - well, except for the uninsulated north wall where the wind comes through and freezes the pipes. In January 1981 it was 20º below for three weeks, and even the drains froze. Despite our unheated upstairs, my trusty soapstone bed-warmer kept me toasty.

Orange moon reclining low, beneath suspended stars
So many tonight they crowd the sky, Orion bears his shield
Midwinter night, the mercury reads ten below
But cannot feel the chill of winds that pile the snow against my door.

The warm air greets me from within, I stomp my feet to shed the snow
I'll stoke the stoves to thaw my fingers, warm the keys of my piano...

We live, us two, in this big old house and when you're home it's warmed with love
And when you're gone I haul the wood, and curl up in a chair to read
Or play my blue piano
And late at night I place the soapstone on the stove to heat
It warms my bed when you're away.

        You've been drawn to the challenge of the ice and the snow
        And winds relentless drive the chill to your bones
        But your blood is warmed with danger, the climb excites your nerves
        And the mountain knows a part of you which I will never see.

I'll wake in the morning, my life will be the same
I'll stoke the fires, thaw the pipes, and boil some water for my tea
And long about the afternoon
I'll sit down at my blue piano and play a song for you
To wish you safe and send my love
And late at night I'll place the soapstone on the stove to heat.


The Enfolding   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins ©1982 Molly Gamblin Music (BMI)

Vocal & guitar - Lui
Dulcimer - Leo Kretzner
Mandolin - Joe Gerhard
This song came as a middle of the night gift.

Deep in this softly moonlit night we awoke to find
Our love's sweet expression unfolding of its own accord
A touch in gentle sleepiness, a fingertip and a pressing lip
The kindness of our bodies speaking softly in the dark.

Our love began so tentative, a smiling eye, a voice softspoken
Touching in a way our lives had never quite been met
A quiet grave acceptance of a truth within each other
The meeting of two people,man and woman, for all time.

So in the night our love unfolds, your body is akin to mine
Another half once left behind in generations long ago
To finally come together in a silent true immersion
The natural culmination of a love we can't define.

And this loving is a drawing close, a tuning in and opening
Until one perfect moment - but how can it be expressed?
A receiving, an enfolding, as I cradle you within my loins
Within my heart, within my soul, you are my own true love.

Deep in this softly moonlit night we awoke to find
Our love's sweet expression unfolding of its own accord
A touch in gentle sleepiness, a fingertip and a pressing lip
The kindness of our bodies speaking softly in the dark.

Ecstasy   Next Song | | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Rev. John Leland/T.W. Carter

Vocals - Lui
Harmony vocals - Sally Rogers, Leo Kretzner, Howard Burse
Bass -Russ Landau
Drums - Victor Steffens
Percussion - Lou D'Agostino
French horns - Dana Lord
Trumpet - Gary Partridge
Electric guitar - John Cunningham
This song comes from the tradition of the Sacred Harp shape-note singing. What better way to praise God than to celebrate life in joyous, majestic, raucous, ecstatic music?

Oh, when will I see Jesus and reign with him above
And from the flowing fountain drink everlasting love?
Oh, had I wings I would fly away and be at rest.
And I'd praise God in his bright abode.

When e'er you meet with troubles and trials on your way
Then cast your cares on Jesus and don't forget to pray.

Gird on the gospel armor of faith and hope and love
And when the combat's ended he'll carry you above.

Oh, do not be discouraged, for Jesus is your friend
And if you lack for knowledge he'll not refuse to send

Neither will he upbraid you, though often you request
He'll give you grace to conquer and take you home to rest.


Lullabye   | Top | | Solo Recordings |
Lui Collins ©1984 Molly Gamblin Music (BMI)

Vocal - Lui
Synthesizer - Jack Jones
Written for my daughter Sylva and for my grandfather, who taught me about letting go gracefully.

Lullabye my own wee baby, lullabye baby
Lullabye and close your eyes, let sleep come peacefully.

Hushabye my own wee baby, hushabye baby
Hushabye and close your eyes, let sleep come peacefully.

And rockabye my own wee baby, rock on Mamma's knee.
Rockabye and close your eyes, let sleep come peacefully.

Grampa's head lay on the pillow, his skin hung loose and grey
but now and then a smile would come to linger peacefully.

And then the call that death had taken the man I loved so well
His life was good, and long, and loving. Let sleep come peacefully.

So hushabye my own wee baby, hushabye baby
Hushabye and close your eyes, let sleep come peacefully.


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