Browse song lyrics

This is a blues song that laments the startling sudden, and recent, death of truth in modern Western culture. Whether you feel that it died at the hands of the media, the Internet, shallow self-serving politicians, or their followers, we can all agree that it’s fatally wounded. The music for this song needs gravel and anger, but should also evoke an arm-around-a-stranger’s-neck sing along at an Irish Bar, as if we’re partying at our own wake.

At the end of hope is surrender. We struggle. We lose more often than we wish, we routinely grind most contests to a draw, and, yes, occasionally we win. Those wins are the fuel to forge ahead. But this song is about running out of gas. It’s a lyric perhaps well-suited for a slow tempo, sparse instrumentals, and an understated atmosphere that lets bleakness take center stage.

I wrote this song while listening to Ladyfingers by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass. It’s a song about how life changes or how we see it differently once we find love.

The lyrics are about a person who has a toxic partner

The narrator in Tears Of Joy is in an apparently vulnerable position when he or she is surprised by an unexpected visitor, who finds the subject alone, disheveled, possibly drunk, and crying. Immediately, the narrator begins to cover his/her tracks, explaining away the evidence of despair.