I’m sure other songwriters have experienced writing a song that starts out having one intention and, as if having a will of its own, it takes a turn in a completely different direction. That was the case with Gentle Heart. I originally wrote the chorus of this song while thinking of my father. During that time, I received a scholarship to a writer’s retreat located on the shores of Lake Superior in Minnesota. While I was working on this song in that inspiring setting, something shifted and it morphed into a story about my mother. I’m not sure if it was a result of the energy from that magnificent body of water or some premonition that my mother was not going to be on this planet much longer. Sadly, the latter turned out to be the case. (Evelyn is pictured here with her first born – Jim)

Evelyn was born on a farm in Wisconsin in 1916 and was the only girl in a family with six brothers. I often wonder how isolating it must have felt to be surrounded by so many boys and to not have a sister to confide in. Her only formal education was in a one-room school house down the road from the farm. She cooked on a wood burning stove, sewed her own clothes and worked as hard as any farm hand. At seventeen, she left the farm and took a bus to St. Paul where she worked, married, and raised a family of six children. She was a remarkable woman who faced everything life threw at her with grace, strength, and kindness. She loved her family above all else. I should be so fortunate to be half the woman she was.

GENTLE HEART

Her hands were leathered with life, but not her heart
Seventeen years she lived on the family farm
It never really mattered that the life she had was hard
‘Cause she was born with a gentle heart

Her hands were weathered and rough, but they could soothe
Laid against a fevered brow, soft and cool
They’d pick up all the pieces when our lives would fall apart
And soothe our souls with her gentle heart

Sometimes deep and distant, I always tried to listen
Though the words she spoke were often lost to a young and foolish girl
There were times her heart was heavy, but it never turned to stone
The light inside her heart was always on . . .

Her hands were leathered with life, but they were kind
They always found the strength they needed to make us mind
And nothing really mattered when she took us in her arms
‘Cause we were born to her gentle heart

Gentle Heart is available as a single digital download and is also included on the CD Blue Companion.

Photo by Rebecca Pavlenko

Relationships with parents can sometimes be complicated, and that is probably the best descriptor that I have for my relationship with my mother. While most folks identify Paris as a song about the missed opportunity to be with a lover, this song was actually written about my mother.

As an adult, I had the chance to take a trip to Paris with both my mother and older sister. Travel can sometimes highlight stressors in relationships and my fear at the time was that those issues in our relationship would impact the trip in a negative way.

Needless to say, I regret not taking the opportunity to share that experience with her and perhaps would have found a way to better understand and comminicate with her. But I was too myopic at the time.

The older I get, the more I appreciate her level headed wisdom and the fortitude it took to raise six children and work outside the home. She taught me to recognize what was truly important in this life. I wish I had learned those lessons earlier…

PARIS

I should have gone to Paris when I had the chance
I almost palmed the golden egg, but it slipped right through my hands
As near as I remember I just did not want to go
I wasn’t ready to surrender the life I’d come to know

I should have loved you better and I should have loved you kind
I was flying left of center – deaf and dumb and blind
Caught between a circumstance and the fear of all unknown
Waiting for a second chance can turn a heart to stone

I am alone, I am alone with my regret
Thinking about what I haven’t learned yet
Ten thousand wild horses can’t chase all the pain away
And now in dreams all the demon forces are pulling me in separate ways
I am afraid, and yet amazed

I should have gone to Paris when I had the chance
I should have left it all behind and followed you to France
Now I see you in the photograph standing by the Eiffel Tower
I see the smile upon your face, obscured by April showers

Paris  is available as a single digital download and is also included on the CD Blue Companion.

Eyes of Blue was penned many years ago on one of those days when the woes of the world seem to overshadow all that is right and good. There are many references in literature to the concept that eyes are the windows to the soul. Each verse in this composition echoes the moods reflected by colors cast through these windows: the fear of paralyzing loneliness; a society that allows children to fall into the abyss of neglect and worse; the shameful scars of the Vietnam war; and finally to the pollution that is choking and degrading our planet. Sadly, all of those issues are still with us today.

Richard Dworsky’s exquisite piano artfully carries us through the imagery of this song, along with Joe Englund’s hauntingly beautiful cello.

Australian artist Timothy McConnachie painted this striking interpretation of Eyes of Blue that so beautifully captures the intention and mood of this composition. The video was created using images from the painting to convey a graphic novel interpretation of the lyrics.

View the video of Eyes of Blue based on the painting by Tim McConnachie

Eyes of Blue

Today my eyes are blue
As I think about the silence of the heart inside of you
And I see your face from a different view
Today I only see through eyes of blue

Today my eyes are brown
As I think about the children that are lost and never found
And I hear them cry without a sound
As I look around these streets with eyes of brown

Today my eyes are green
As I stand before the granite wall of a hundred thousand names
That I never knew
But I feel their dreams
As I weep before the wall with eyes of green

Today my eyes are gray
I look through blackened clouds even tears can’t wash away
And I wonder how we will be repaid
For looking at the sky through eyes of gray

Today  my eyes are blue

Eyes of Blue  is available as a single digital download

and is also included on the CD True Heart