Peg Luke ’s latest release, “My Faith Looks Up,” isn’t just another entry in the contemporary Christian canon—it’s a reinvention of what sacred music can sound like when it’s rooted in deep personal experience and shaped by global musical sensibilities. The Emmy and Grammy-nominated flutist and composer transforms a 19th-century hymn into something that feels ancient and brand new at the same time.
Luke has always operated at the intersection of classical training and spiritual intention. But this track finds her digging even deeper, not just into musical archives but into her own resilience. Diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and living in isolation since the early days of the pandemic, she’s chosen to channel her experience into art rather than retreat from it. The result is a song that doesn’t just ask for faith—it extends it like a hand.
What makes “My Faith Looks Up” remarkable isn’t just the reverence with which Luke treats the original hymn’s lyrics—it’s the sonic tapestry she weaves around them. Her signature flute work is here, gliding like a whispered prayer through the track. But it’s the addition of the Uilleann pipes and the bodhrán that gives the piece its heartbeat. There’s a pulse in this music that feels distinctly Celtic, yet wholly Peg Luke.
This isn’t worship music for Sunday morning background noise. This is music that wants your full attention. The track dances on the edge of folk and sacred, led by instrumentation that feels both celebratory and meditative. It’s got the bones of a reel and the soul of a spiritual.
Peg Luke’s background—years of performance in revered spaces like Carnegie Hall and Cadogan Hall—is evident in every measure. You can hear the discipline, but you can also hear the risk. She admits she wasn’t sure she could pull off this dance between ancient hymn and modern arrangement. That vulnerability is baked into the track—and it’s what makes it sing.
The song’s origin story adds another layer of intimacy. Peg Luke was inspired by Irish rock that used the Uilleann pipes, and the sound stayed with her. When the time came to rework “My Faith Looks Up to Thee,” the connection clicked. It wasn’t calculated—it was intuitive. That’s the kind of authenticity you can’t manufacture, and it pulses through the song’s veins.
In her own words, she envisions listeners “washed over, healed, and invigorated.” It’s a lofty goal, but she doesn’t just reach for it—she delivers it. There’s a cinematic quality to the music that invites visual storytelling. You can imagine the scene she describes: a person brought low by life, rising with grace and inexplicable hope, bathed in a soft, divine light. It doesn’t feel like fantasy—it feels like possibility.
Peg Luke’s spiritual mission isn’t performative. It’s lived. She’s not trying to impress anyone with virtuosic runs or overwrought arrangements. She’s speaking from a place of quiet authority, honed not just through accolades, but through adversity. And that’s why this song lands—not just as a piece of music, but as a statement of being.