The title "The Angry Buddhist" so powerfully encapsulates the dynamic tension of this lovely song, the counterpoint between emotions of rage or disbelief in the face of evil or suffering and the cultivated spiritual qualities that are both strained to breaking and perhaps affirmed or perfected in the crucible of anguish. I love the humility of this song, the sense of questing, inquiry, of seeking a way to cope ("searching for the light," "fighting the good fight" "without letting hatred in." As though you have your long-cultivated spiritual tool box, but are momentarily at a loss, given the scope of your painful witness in the broken world. It's a song of the test of faith, and yet the indomitable flexing of faith. Wondering whether it's even possible to apply the principles so dear to you to a context of such outrage, seeking a peaceful way, a compassionate way. I greatly appreciate the line "there is a cancer growing deep inside the soul of anyone whose motivation is control." This is a preoccupation of mine, and speaks to the dissonance and disconnect between those who hold, represent, or seek to implement spiritual principles versus those who maneuever in the secual world. I understand that the dichotomy is not so simple, and I am grateful to people who try to do both. But generally, basically, I watch in horror as the very people you have implicitly named destroy our world, even as I witness with admiration, gratitude, and even agape those I cherish and admire, like yourself, carry the embers or seeds of creation forward in an often lonely kept faith. In that regard, I love how you move in this song to an almost primal, shamanistic, or ritual evocation: "deep in the woods, we light a fire, and dance by the light of second sight and second chance." That's some beautiful poetry, Billy. It reminds us that our salvation lies rooted in ancient, simple truths, carried forward by spiritualists, artists, lovers. Who are "never going to be afraid to start revolutions of the heart and of the mind." - Ethan Dunn

Written and Produced by Billy Webster
Lead Guitar by Carl Basler
Recorded at the Jersey Dream, 2026