The Ballroom Thieves turn the spare guitar part and raw, tender vocals of “Shine” into a song that achingly and beautifully depicts what it feels like to be desolate, burned out and floating in moments of dissociated observations and holding on by a thread to something even if nothing seems to matter or make sense. Calin “Callie” Peters uses the image of light as a metaphor for the energy that uplifts and brings comprehension and meaning which can have fluid qualities that flow in and out of our psyche and without it we feel lost. The way the guitar phrases frame the lyrics and with touches of cello to shade in the background of the music the song comes across like a very sharp and sensitive portrait of depression and how it’s easy to get stuck when the vital energy of life and the will to be active and engaged seems out of reach and you seem unable to get out of a perpetual twilight and mostly in existing in the dark of your personal night. But the line “shine a light, turn the night back into morning, shine a light, take the night away from me” points to at least desire for help in easing out of that gloom that seems impossible to escape. The pastoral feel of the song in the end becomes a perfect vehicle for expressing some very heavy and real states of mind without the clumsy hubris and toxic positivity that is too often brought to bear on the subject. Listen to “Shine” on Spotify and connect with The Ballroom Thieves at the links below.
The Ballroom Thieves on Twitter
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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