Yeah, I was in the phase for the last ten years or so where every record I made I said OK, that's the last one, I don't want to record anymore, I don't want to do this any more, I don't want to have a public life.

I have daughters who are writers and actors but no musicians.

I am so sick of reading about another car bomb, another suicide bomber, another 10, 20, 30, 70, 100 people dead in a day, both Americans and Iraqis.

If you're playing in a tradition and you have no reference point to it, no understanding and have not studied it, I can't respect that.

Celtic music is part of the language in Scotland and Ireland, where every kid and grandparent knows those songs, music by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Hank Snow is getting entrenched here. They are part of our cultural language. It's part of a living treasure. It doesn't just belong to a museum.

More and more, I see myself as a folk musician, and someone who values context.

I do not believe in terrorism, violence, destruction, murder, pre-emption, or War.