I write about everything, but I just - how faith filters through all that and colors your opinion of other people and life and all that.

To me, it's all about the song. Songs are what make me excited. You hear a great song and you want to record it or get a great idea and you want to write it.

I've found that music allows years to fold like an accordion over each other, so I guess you don't feel the passage of time as much.

Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there's shadow - no, not just shadow, but fullness. You've got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that's real.

But to make a holiday record that involves favorite American songs and then also get to sing about Jesus birth, it just seemed like a real easy, subtle way to combine a couple of things that I love.

Anybody who's ever gone through a hard time - any outsider's perception, no matter how much information they're given, they have no idea what the person's life is like.

I had the great advantage of a mother who used to tell me the most beautiful years of a woman's life are ages 35 to 45.