I'm one of those people who just doesn't plan my personal life. I plan my professional life.

Jazz and blues fests are everywhere now, and Americana is going strong on college radio. What I'm hearing is an appreciation of real music.

I speak my mind and come from a place of conscience, as well as have fun as a musician.

I don't go into any album with a concept or a deliberate direction. It's more letting the best music that really appeals to me at the time, the best songs that I find after many months and years of search and sifting through my collection, and asking radio people and journalists. It's really an ongoing search that's as much daunting as it is somewhat exciting.

I made my first album, and I guess it wasn't a fluke, because now I'm on my 16th.

How unthinkable that, in a country of such bursting plenty, so many people are facing ongoing hunger and poverty. If we are truly each other's keepers, let's support school lunches, food stamps, neighborhood garden projects, and so many other wonderful programs working to put an end to this cruel and needless blight once and for all.

Religion is for people who are scared to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there.