Think about all of the families where the father is a doctor and the son is a doctor or generations of coal miners. Why did they go into that line of….

I wanted to be a songwriter.I didn't so much want to be a performer.I more grew into that just from being a songwriter..

More and more, I see myself as a folk musician, and someone who values context..

I choose not to give energy to the emotions of revenge, hatred or the desire to subjugate..

If you're playing in a tradition and you have no reference point to it, no understanding and have not studied it, I can't respect that..

I gave up language for a while, and I started painting.And then I only listened to Miles Davis and other instrumental music to see how it felt to be ….

When I was 18 years old, I went on the road with my dad after I graduated from high school. And we were riding on the tour bus one day, kind of rolli….

I found it was really impossible for me to write songs when I couldn't sing..

Sometimes the fragment of a conversation, the color of the sky, the image in a dream, has everything to do with where the song begins..

I needed to carve out my own place and find out what I was going to do.

I was a songwriter; that was the torch I carried. This is an honorable profession. This is what I do..

Yeah, I was in the phase for the last ten years or so where every record I made I said OK, that's the last one, I don't want to record anymore, I don….

I was angry at my parents when I had to have brain surgery, that they weren't still around, because no matter how old you are you want you parents wh….

The key to change is to let go of fear..

It's a little dangerous for me to get outside myself and think about how I want people to see me..

For the first time in 23 years I'm enjoying the process of supporting it, of going out and doing shows, and doing the interviews, and doing everythin….

Being in the studio is like painting, you know, you can really take your time, and try different things, and kind of go deep into it..

Southern gentility is evocative to me..

I was sensitive to music and poetry, and it was around me growing up..