I wrote and recorded these songs in the attic of a house in Newport, Rhode Island. My family took refuge in that house after making the hard decision to leave where we were living in Madrid when the pandemic got so bad in the city that they closed all the parks and declared that our children wouldn’t be allowed to leave our apartment. We couldn’t get back home to Santa Fe, though, and so we relied on the kindness of friends for housing, first in Newport and then in Taos. I felt an incredible mix of emotions, as did many of us, in those earlyish days of the pandemic. Relief, gratitude, fear, frustration, love. I also noticed more beauty in the world than maybe ever before, the slow coming of Spring, the leafing of the great Elm trees, the changing ocean, Sarah, our children.

I started writing songs to comfort my kids, my parents, Sarah, and me. I’d go up into the attic early in the morning, before Jackson and Noah woke up, and I’d stay up there until I heard them moving around. I didn’t intend to make a record initially. But writing felt important to me for the first time in a long while, and I wrote quickly (also for the first time in a long while). In fact, I wrote a song a day for a few days, and I made little videos from our house, which I posted online. The first song I wrote was “Gonna Win the War.” The final song was “When the World Sits Still.” My longtime sideman and good friend Jordan Katz was the first to suggest I record the songs for real, and so I reached out to Will Robertson, another dear old friend and collaborator. Over the next month or so, I finished writing the songs and began recording them on a single mic, which I had taken with me to (and then from) Spain. I had my Gibson LG-1 and a beat up thirdhand classical guitar that I bought in a suburb of Madrid from a man who was at least half blind and spoke no English. I also had Jackson’s ukulele and a harmonica. So those are the tools that made up the core of this album. I got Sarah and our boys to sing on a couple of songs. Later Will added some beautiful textures in his studio in Atlanta, Jordan played horns and banjo in Los Angeles. And the great Bill Titus sent in some French Horn from New York.

The album initially came out only in digital form. I wasn’t sure at the time when I’d play shows again, so virtual seemed the only appropriate medium. But as the world staggers back into some kind of motion again, I’ve decided to release a vinyl edition. I want people to be able to hold this album in their hands and sit with these songs, because I believe that just as music can hold people, music should be held. I think of this album a little like a prayer. Writing and recording the songs did feel a bit like praying. In fact, the first lyric calls on us to “wake up in the early light,” and the record ends with an “amen.” I don’t know when (or if) the world will return to anything resembling what it looked like before. And in many ways, I hope it never does. These songs are my reminder that we don’t have to rush back into old patterns. That we can strive to be better. Most of my music is an attempt to find hope and heart within the pain and challenges of this life, but I don’t know if any set of my songs does so quite as much as this album. We all needed to find the light in one of the darker most uncertain times in most of our memories, and these songs are my best attempt at creating something that shines.

LYRICS
When the World Sits Still

Words and music by David Berkeley
Straw Man Publishing ASCAP 2002

Get up in the early light, let’s sneak downstairs
While both of our boys are still in bed.
The hours are ours again, like way back when
Oh and the world sits still awhile.

Put on the coffee, let’s go back in time
Back when we first woke side by side.
You held me so close to you, yeah we both knew
Oh how the world sits still awhile.

When we start again
Go sweet, go slow.
When we start again, be kind.
Don’t forget the heart what’s keeping time.
Oh while the world sits still awhile.

Remember the days before the boys got big
Rocking them chest to chest to sleep
All of the city lights, those sleepless nights
Oh how the world sits still awhile.

Remember the farm, you wore that dress you made,
All of the back porch thunderstorms
Or the morning in July and the western sky
Oh and the world sits still a while

When we start again
Go sweet, go slow
When we start again be kind
Don’t forget our hearts are keeping time
Oh while the world sits still awhile

There are some things that I don’t want to lose
When all of the engines turn back on.
How all of the colors shine, in your eyes and mine
Oh while the world sits still awhile

Yeah time is a racehorse when you’re looking back
I hear the boys now on the stairs
All of the love we made, the love we gave
Yeah it makes the world sit still awhile.
Let’s let the world sit still awhile.

Beside the Shuttered Doors

Words and music by David Berkeley
Straw Man Publishing ASCAP 2002

The city is silent like a ghost on the cobblestones.
Even the church bells do not ring.

The winds they are blowing off the coast down the alleyways,
Sweeping beside the shuttered doors.

Oh quiet world, maybe now we’ll know what we really need.
I need to know you’re fine.

I couldn’t see it all before.
We couldn’t see we wanted more.

After it all may we not be the same.
Yeah when we come back may we come back changed.
Let us be washed in the pouring rain.

Now all we want to know is when
This too shall pass,
And when we can be who we used to be.

Cause we don’t know how to bow or bend
Until things really get bad.
Maybe it’s time at last.

I couldn’t see it all before.
We couldn’t see we wanted more.

After it all may we not be the same.
Yeah when we come back may we come back changed.
Let us be washed in the pouring rain.

Last night the moon rose over balconies
All Silver and wise.
Ever the quiet face of change.

If we can get through this then maybe
We can get through it all.
Give us another chance.

I couldn’t see it all before.
We couldn’t see we wanted more

After it all may we not be the same.
Yeah when we come back may we come back changed.
Let us be washed in the pouring rain.
Oh quiet world, maybe we can change.

Let the Light Back In

Words and music by David Berkeley
Straw Man Publishing ASCAP 2002

May every step remind us that our life’s a wonder.

Oh heart of mine let the light back in. Let it shine.

Violet Baudelaire

Words and music by David Berkeley
Straw Man Publishing ASCAP 2002

Oh to be in the heart of the land when the sign comes from above.
Oh to see in the heart of a man, when he gathers all he loves,
When he gathers all he love.

What’s the game if we all will lose, tell me what have we turned into?
And would you change if you had to choose
If the hardest parts come true,
when the hardest parts come true?

Has the world gone crazy or just weary of us?
Has the world gone crazy or just weary of us?
We’ve lost your trust.
Please don’t give up.
Please don’t give…

Oh to be with Violet Baudelaire before the smoke rose and filled the sky.
Oh to tie a ribbon in her hair, tell her all will be just fine.
Oh to find a castle in the air, hold her trembling hand in mine,
Hold her trembling hand in mine,
Hold your trembling hand in mine

Gonna Win the War

Words and music by David Berkeley
Straw Man Publishing ASCAP 2002

Gonna win the war
Gonna hold it down
We’re coming back for sure
Gonna win this war

It’s just a waiting game
It is not the end
And no one is to blame
It’s just a waiting game

Oh, Child we’ll be fine. Don’t be worried.
I’ll hold you tonight in my arms

I know that it’s hard.
I know that you’re scared.
Alone can feel so dark.
I know that it’s hard.

The enemy’s unseen.
It’s different from before.
We keep the space between
The enemy unseen.

Oh, Child we’ll be fine. Don’t be worried.
I’ll hold you tonight in my arms.
Oh, momma I’m fine. Don’t be worried
I’ll hold you tonight in my mind.

Gonna win the war.
Gonna hold it down.
We’re coming back for sure.
Gonna win the war.

Spring is coming soon.
It slips inside the walls.
It’s bigger than these rooms.
Spring is coming soon

Lost in Madrid

Words and music by David Berkeley
Straw Man Publishing ASCAP 2002

The plaza is empty now.
I’m lost in Madrid.
The fountains don’t flow.
Footsteps don’t sound.
Drinks do not pour
When no one’s around.

And I’m on a platform now.
I wait for your train.
But I know it won’t come.
The whole world’s delayed.
There’s dust on the tracks,
and you’re miles away

So sing with me now.
Let’s pretend you’re lying in my arms once more.
Don’t be afraid.
Shadows pass, and we’ll be back again, I know.

Time’s like a stubborn child
Refuses to budge
I beg it to race
it stomps on the floor
It drags both its heels
Deadbolts the door

So sing with me now.
Let’s pretend you’re lying in my arms once more.
Don’t be afraid.
Shadows pass, and we’ll be back again, I know.

It’s four in the afternoon.
But what is this day?
I’d shatter the glass.
I’d run the red roofs.
I’d breakdown the walls
To get back to you.

So sing with me now.
Let’s pretend you’re lying in my arms once more.
Don’t be afraid.
Shadows pass, and we’ll be back again, I know

Stars and Rain

Words and music by David Berkeley
Straw Man Publishing ASCAP 2002

All of your heart is made of sky and earth and stars and rain.
All of my heart is made of sky and earth and stars and rain.

Don’t be afraid of the world.
It still shines and it still twirls.
Don’t be scared.

See how the sun’s sure to rise,
And the whole world comes alive.
Don’t be scared.

All of our hearts are made of sky and earth and stars and rain.

See how the trees hold their ground,
And they spread their shade around.
Don’t be scared.

Hear how the birds fill the air.
They’re still singing without a care.
Don’t be scared

Cause all of our hearts are made of sky and earth and stars and rain.

The Tightrope

Words and music by David Berkeley
Straw Man Publishing ASCAP 2002

Walking on a tightrope
And I know the winds blow hard.
Worrying a wrong step
could make you fall so far.

Trying to keep your head straight.
Trying to hold back fear.

Feeling all alone there,
Like you might just disappear.

Don’t be so hard on yourself.
Don’t be so hard.

And who do you lean on
When all that you thought you knew
Starts to recede now
Starts to just fade from view?

Yeah what do we heed now
when everything has to wait
And what to believe now
When maybe you lost your faith?

Don’t be so hard on yourself
Don’t be so hard

I know you’re scared that you might fall.
We’re only human after all,
And all of us now we feel so small.
If only we had a cannonball to fire.

You’re walking on a tightrope.
Well, maybe I’m walking, too.

Try to be brave now
There’s nothing more we can do.
Baby come down now.
You know that I’m just like you.
We can be stronger
believing all that’s still true.

Don’t be so hard on yourself.
Don’t be so hard.

Mi Shebeirach

Words and music by David Berkeley
Straw Man Publishing ASCAP 2002

Mi shebeirach avoteinu
M'kor hab'racha l'imoteinu
May the source of strength,
Who blessed the ones before us,
Help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing,
And let us say, Amen.
Mi shebeirach imoteinu
M'kor habrachah l'avoteinu
Bless those in need of healing with r'fuah sh'leimah,
The renewal of body, the renewal of spirit,
And let us say, Amen