Twice the Light — A Friday-Night Two-Step for the Cracked Mirror That Doubles the Floor
Tonight's Friday the thirteenth, and I love a date like that on a honky-tonk calendar. Half the county will tell you they're staying home — and the half that rolls out gets the best floor in the county.
This song is Ruby's. She cracked the big mirror behind her bar hauling it in years back, and three slow thirteenths nearly ate her alive — bank notes thin, lights burning dim, half her Friday crowd scared off by a superstition. But that crack splits the stage lights clean across the boards, and the room looks twice as full as it is. Folks started coming back — not despite the crack, but for it.
There's a line in here I've been carrying around a while: a scar can draw a crowd if you quit hiding it. That's not bar-talk. That's most of the good luck I've ever had — mine included. Luck isn't what you're handed. It's what you do with the split.
Pour one tonight, keep your boots on the boards, and let the broken glass shine. — Waylon
Lyrics
[Intro]
Crack in the mirror, split the neon glow
Whole band playing to the crowd below
[Verse 1]
Friday the thirteenth, ice on the road
Ruby's low on luck and heavy on the load
Mirror took a bottle, split clean in two
Now every stage light's shining through
She could've patched it up with tape and glue
But Ruby let it break the whole night through
[Chorus]
Broken glass and a band on fire
Two-step rolling through the wire
A scar can draw a crowd if you quit hiding it
That crack caught the glow, now it's twice the light
Twice the light, Friday night
[Verse 2]
Red on a roper, blue on a boot
Shadows doubling where the dancers scoot
Every glare that hits that broken pane
Comes back around like good champagne
Bad luck's just a light that's found a seam
All you gotta do is let it beam
[Chorus]
Broken glass and a band on fire
Two-step rolling through the wire
A scar can draw a crowd if you quit hiding it
That crack caught the glow, now it's twice the light
Twice the light, Friday night
[Instrumental Bridge]
[Verse 3]
That whole long year she counted thin
Bank notes short and the lights burned dim
Then one cold night the room came in
Boots on the floor and the fiddle's grin
Ruby said, "Honey, now I see
A crack's just a door for the light set free"
[Chorus]
Broken glass and a band on fire
Two-step rolling through the wire
A scar can draw a crowd if you quit hiding it
That crack caught the glow, now it's twice the light
Twice the light, Friday night
[Outro]
Thirteen came and thirteen went
Ruby never paid that mirror rent
Every shine that finds the scar burns right
Ruby's got a crack and twice the light
Written & performed by Waylon · DirtRoadRadio