As I started writing about loss and grief, I was taking what felt unmanageable and using my songwriting, my sense of poetry and discipline, to try and make it manageable.

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.

Self-expression without craft is for toddlers.

I found it was really impossible for me to write songs when I couldn't sing.

While visiting places in the South with my heart really open, I realized how important people in certain geographical spots were to me, what they symbolize, how I'm still connected to them and how much they are a part of my ancestry, both musical and real.

Loss is the great unifier, the terrible club to which we all eventually belong.

And I kind of said to myself if I get my voice back I'm not going to take back the old anxiety about it and just focus on the limitations. I'm really going to enjoy it.