Beautiful Soul from MIND'S EYE by Tad Wise

This one's heavy. And for more than one reason. First: Expressing love in the face of doom is, of course, hugely important. It's also exceedingly difficult. Yet when it's a dear friend who's dying, survival guilt makes the whole process even worse. Fortunately, songs speak for songwriters where even the bravest of us lose courage, "Beautiful Soul" being a case and point. Miraculously, my dear KM has--so far--recovered fully. But when it looked worse than bad I asked the tenderest singer I know to help me convey my tenderest of emotions when nothing less would do. Thank you, Kirsti, for fulfilling that requirement so perfectly.

Next:I call myself an "Ambitheist," (a term coined by the poet Sparrow) because I change my mind about the big question depending on the present phase of the moon. And as you'll soon hear--I wasn't convinced of the immortality of the soul when I wrote this song. So that's enough Heavy. Here's a little lighter.

I conceived of "Mind's Eye" as title for this album since I wanted a phrase which conveyed something of the enigma captured in Frank Spinelli's photograph. So now imagine my surprise when I found "Mind's Eye" repeated not once, but several times in this lyric. (Almost enough to suggest I'd had it in mind from the first...)

And now on a less ethereal note: for some reason the verses of this song contain no rhythm guitar whatsoever. And maybe one of YOU could tell ME why.

Tad Wise started writing songs at ten, while raking Bob Dylan’s leaves. He was discovered by John Hall in 2000 who promptly produced Wise’s first CD, "Love's Grand Adventure." Twenty years later Wise returned releasing three full albums in three years. Today he re-issues SONG FOR UKRAINE on the 3rd anniversary of Putin's invasion of the bravest nation on Earth.