“All Lights Burning Bright” | SONG of the week

Lead vocal: David Francey
Guitar: Craig Werth
Bouzouki: Craig Werth
Fiddle: Geoff Somers
Percussion: Shane Simpson
Backing vocals: The Boys Brigade Irregulars
Album: Right of Passage
Album year: 2007

We were standing the last watch
At the close of the day—
Three days on the water
Out from Thunder Bay.

'Cross Superior, Huron,
And into St. Clair,
On a bright day in summer
I found myself there.

Dead calm on the water
As blue as the sky,
And we waved from the water
As we slowly passed by.

We entered Lake Erie.
It was late in the day.
You could see that storm coming 
From a mile away.

We had all lights burning bright,
All lights burning bright.

That storm overtook us,
And it fell like the night,
And the Point and the Island,
They passed out of sight.

But we sailed on rock steady,
Set course through the storm,
As the sky fell upon us
And the wind drove us on.

We had all lights burning bright,
All lights burning bright.

And I thought to myself
I'd be just like this ship
If I kept my light burning
On every trip.

The watch it was ended
With the turn of the night,
And I wrote in that log book
All lights burning bright.

We had all lights burning bright,
All lights burning bright.

"On lake boats the last entry in the Watch Log Book at the end of each shift reads 'All navigation lights burning brightly.' I took this phrase as a metaphor for life. Keep your own light shining…brightly."

David Francey