George Ensle is a painter of songs. Sometimes he uses broad strokes to paint hilltop sunsets, tree lined rivers, and mountain ranges, and sometimes he paints with fine strokes the portraits of everyday people, the unsung heroes he captures in song. Real characters like Uncle Jack, the crusty old bachelor who gets a little bit too tight at times, but is still a kid's best friend, tucking him in on the sofa summer Saturday nights. Characters like the housewife who dances in the kitchen to a golden oldie after her kids and husband have gone for the day, and the circuit preacher who drives a dusty old black Ford, baptizing in the middle of the river of love and understanding, and the father singing a long distance lullaby, and the widow in her parlor who lives across the street in a state of grace, and the mother who sings her children to sleep beside a tiny fire, beneath a third world moon, and the troubadour (Ensle's amigo) Townes Van Zandt, with lines cut deep around his smile, who's ragged as the wind and pure as the snow. For these troubled times, Ensle captures the human condition with characters who inspire us to carry on, to look with compassion on others, to understand our commonality. Ensle paints with the brush of hope.