Has there ever been a better time for tales of heroes? Here’s a story to lift our spirits from the latest album by modern-day minstrel, Kray van Kirk. Kray has appeared in these pages twice before; the last time was in October 2015 when Shiloh was my track-of-the-week. Back then the song was about a writer of fables, this new one tells of a strange old man who patrolled the New York subway late at night.

The song takes us on a journey. We enter the dark subway tunnels at the station of hatred and fear. We ride with the Midnight Commander whose simple humanity mops up angry words and wipes away all spiteful deeds. We despair when the hero’s healing light is extinguished a few stops down the line. And we rejoice at our destination when ordinary men and women put on the superhero costume and command the darkness of midnight to be gone.

Click here to buy the album directly from the Kray van Kirk website.

Superheroes protect us only in fiction but we can all be heroes in this virus-ravaged real world. Come, let’s all sing together …

I am the Midnight Commander,
I am a flame,
I’m a beacon in the night.

I am the Midnight Commander,
Oh set aside your hatred and put aside your fear,
For the Midnight Commander is here.