Isn't that the goal, as you grow older? That you start reclaiming those parts of yourself you didn't recognize or didn't think were there all along? That's what happened when I made The River and the Thread record.

I love mixing up my genres.

Being in the studio is like painting, you know, you can really take your time, and try different things, and kind of go deep into it.

I dream of songs. I dream they fall down through the centuries, from my distant ancestors, and come to me. I dream of lullabies and sea shanties and keening cries and rhythms and stories and backbeats.

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.

It's a little dangerous for me to get outside myself and think about how I want people to see me.

It is the people who scream the loudest about America and Freedom who see to be the most intolerant for a differing point of view.