I try to be careful not to do single concerts where I fly out, do my show, turn around and go home.

I think the music was speaking to that opening up of whose voice gets heard and how multidimensional that voice can be.

There's tons of anger and angst and peculiarity and eccentricity, and good towns know that that's okay. But towns that are kind of bullshit don't know what to do with all those feelings.

In the laughing times we know that we are lucky, and in the quiet times we know that we are blessed. And we will not be alone.

But where do we come up with this notion of a woman in which the less space you take up, the more you're worth?

A lot of the songs are pretty unmasked. If you listen to "As Cool As I Am," it's not all that different from what you were hearing from Ani DiFranco and some of the other indie women artists of the time. It was still in that context, still seen as folk music.

The best, most solid place to stand as you look at our present situation is on a foundation of history. The Roman Empire, the British Empire, and the Nazi empire all have things in common.