While it's a fact that a voice begins with natural talent, any talent must be nurtured, cajoled, wrestled with pampered, challenged, and, at every turn, examined.

I've spent hours and hours doing research into Appalachian folk music. My grandfather was a fiddler. There is something very immediate, very simple and emotional, about that music.

I'm lucky - I can do two things at once.

I've always been inspired by artists who have shown musical and intellectual curiosity and the courage to take risks.

My mother was the worst kind of stage mother. She would make me and my younger sister and brother little duckling costumes and put us in kiddie shows.

I learned so many roles so quickly as a young singer, I thought it was time to come back to them and make them better - deeper, more nuanced.

We are unique, each human voice, not because we are completely self-generated, but because of who we choose to assemble the countless factors that made us.