While John Flynn has drawn ovations as well as invective from audiences unaccustomed to this sort of candor, he has never before put the pieces together with the insight reflected on Two Wolves. The wonder of this album is that it speaks to listeners as if it had emerged from their own inner world. Songs of faith ("My Father’s Chapel"), songs of hope ("Trust the Rope"), songs that measure our tolerance for hypocrisy ("Put Your Freedom Where Your Mouth Is") and our capacity for savoring the pleasures of love ("Sunflower"): with subtle metaphor and the plain poetry of common speech, with simple incantation ("No More War") and snapshot imagery ("Blink"), these songs convey essential messages, wrapped like gifts in the colors of music. Teamed with a superlative cast that includes guitarists Duke Levine (Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bill Morrissey) and Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Dar Williams), drummer Denny McDermott (Roseanne Cash, Donald Fagen), singer Jane Kelly Williams, producer Ben Wisch (Marc Cohn, Patty Larkin) and special guests Kathy Mattea and Kris Kristofferson, Flynn has it all on Two Wolves: a great band, powerful material, and a resolution to live and sing as he must at this stage of life.