Love Live Forgive: Insights from Artists is the newest collaborative project from Justin St. Vincent, following his three-volume series, The Spiritual Significance of Music. As he did in the previous books, St. Vincent posed a couple of questions to a wide variety of musicians, artists, and writers. He then grouped the resulting 1-2 page essays into five chapters: Artistry, Love and Forgiveness, Compassion and Healing, Transformation, and Unity. Although I review a LOT of music, I only recognized about 25% of the names of the essay writers. However, this certainly did not diminish my enjoyment of the book, knowing that St. Vincent approached artists from all over the world and from a broad range of genres. I also discovered some artists whose work I’d really like to explore.

The essays are often very inspiring and some are deeply personal. A few of the writers share the life crises and experiences that sparked their calling to a life in the arts while others use their expressive gifts in a more religious/spiritual context and others seek to heal and uplift. I’m sure many readers will be surprised and delighted to discover just how open, generous and real so many artists are. I would think that just about any reader will find at least a few essays that resonate with them, and most readers will find much to enjoy and be inspired by between the covers of this book. It is available from xtrememusic.org and Amazon. Recommended!