Juliet Lloyd has the perfect post-lockdown song

The acclaimed singer/songwriter's new release sings of theater's resilience.

In response to the pandemic’s ongoing effects on the theater industry, DC-based singer/songwriter Juliet Lloyd has released a new single and music video, “Ghost Light,” featuring stirring lyrics about surviving the shutdown:

We said our goodbyes
not knowing when the next hello would come
We’re all frozen
waiting in the wings

I’ll still be here
I’ll still be here

Now available on all streaming platforms, “Ghost Light” is a shimmery, piano-driven pop/rock track that captures both the eeriness of an empty theater and the hope that life will return to normal.

“I loved the symbolism of the ghost light,” Lloyd said. “Early in the pandemic, there were images of all the stages that had suddenly gone dark with just the ghost light left on. It’s this constant, reassuring presence, and to me, such a sign that no matter what happens, the arts will come back. I wanted to write an anthem for all the performers I know who have been so affected since 2020.”

Lloyd will donate 100 percent of the streaming revenues of the single to The Theatre Lab, the DC region’s largest theater education organization, which benefits nearly 3,000 students each year. She has been a longtime student of the organization, which is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, and joined its board of directors in 2021.

DC-based singer/songwriter Juliet Lloyd

“Theatre Lab transformed my life as a performer, and — like every arts organization — they have been deeply impacted by the pandemic,” Lloyd said. “Despite the challenges of the past two years, they have continued to transform lives through theater education and I can think of no better purpose for ‘Ghost Light’ than to support the ongoing resilience of the arts.”

“Ghost Light,” Lloyd’s first new music released in more than a decade, was produced by Jim Ebert (Meredith Brooks, Butch Walker, Toni Braxton) and recorded at Cue Recording Studio in Falls Church, Virginia. The music video was filmed at the historic Apollo Civic Theatre in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and produced by Baltimore–based production company MindInMotion, with the support of a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council.

Lloyd was recently announced as a 2022 finalist in the Bernard/Ebb Songwriting Awards, an annual competition recognizing the DC region’s best songwriters. In 2021, Lloyd performed more than 100 shows around the region. Her second full-length album, Leave the Light On, featured five songs that were featured on television shows including The Real World, The Hills, and Tough Love, and added into rotation at more than 175 radio stations across the country.

‘GHOST LIGHT” LYRICS:

Time capsule
echoes of a song that goes unsung
We said our goodbyes
not knowing when the next hello would come
We’re all frozen
waiting in the wings

I’ll still be here
I’ll still be here
ghost light
I’ll still be here
I’ll still be here
ghost light

Would it be different
if we knew that it would be our final call
Now all that we have
are memories casting shadows on the wall
and we’re still frozen
waiting in the wings

I’ll still be here
I’ll still be here
ghost light
I’ll still be here
I’ll still be here
ghost light

I’ll still be here
I’ll still be here
ghost light
I’ll still be here
I’ll still be here
ghost light
I’ll still be here
I’ll still be here
ghost light

and we’re still frozen
waiting in the wings

RELATED:
‘Being Alive’ is the pandemic anthem we all need right now  (essay with music videos, by Bob Ashby)
Elegies for empty stages, by Whitney White and Psalmayene 24 (photo feature)

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