There's a difference between music that's original and music that's retro. A lot of bands now are kind of retro 70s whether it's Kraut-rock or... I've heard people suggest that we're kind of retro 80s.

A horn has that voice quality, and an electric guitar can emulate that. But playing an acoustic, the notes don't sustain like that.

I've found that since I've been playing the acoustic, listening to a horn player has left me thinking, well, what can I do with that? But somehow piano players, I feel more of a connection to , now that I'm using the acoustic.

The nice thing about solo is I don't have to coordinate with anyone else's schedule, since it's hard for me just to have a free 15 minutes here and there.

With Fred McDowell, I just love the way he articulates the notes. I'm hardly unique in that, but there's just something about that that I love.

With a four-string, the middle range is less of an option. That kind of 5th that you play on those A and D strings isn't there. So a lot of traditional rock sounds, you can't play them. But to be honest, there was no particular intention when I started playing with four strings. It just worked out that way and it sounded cool.

I had a guitar sitting around, and it just happened to have four strings on it, and I would sit around watching TV and playing it. I ended up writing bunches of songs around four strings.