I think topical songwriting is a real gift, and it's hard not to be pedantic and show up with the sledgehammer message.

So I think that if I do feel more freedom right now in my career, it's not so much because I have less at stake but more a sense that I've learned more.

You know, that single girl life and that sense of isolation - that doesn't leave you just like that. And that's what that song is about. I remember that, and that is imprinted on me, that sense.

It's a marvelous feeling when someone says I want to do this song of yours because they've connected to it. That's what I'm after.

I grew up listening to everything, and when I got signed to a record deal out of Nashville, that was my introduction to what was happening in country music.

In the late 80s, artists could be signed to labels and be nurtured. It wasn't, "We're going to give you one shot, and if you don't measure up, you're gone".

The bedrock thing of country music is, it's about storytelling. I feel like I was able to find a niche because I connected to that in some way.