Once over there [Balkans], I felt extremely patriotic. Here are these people, from 18-year-olds to military veterans, enduring real duress for the cause of peace. I don't ever want to play for a regular audience again, only military folks who are starving for music.

I have a golden Lab who goes everywhere with me. He's a great leveler.

I don't set goals for myself too much, but I'm always trying to write that one great song.

Life's so full that you just take it one day at a time.

When "news stories" are broken, do we not expect a certain amount of fact-checking or source-checking? One has to ask if this falls under the guise of sloppy reporting or deception as a source of spin. We seem to accept a certain amount of deception and we seem to be helpless to doing anything about it, as illustrated so clearly by where we are right now in this moment in history.

A song that sounds simple is just not that easy to write. One of the objectives of this record was to try and write melodies that continue to resonate...Everything that happens to you influences your writing...The writing process for me is pretty much always the same-it's a solitary experience...I have yet to write that one song that defines my career...Beck said he didn't believe in the theory of a song coming through you as if you were an open vessel. I agree with him to a certain extent.

I feel like I am beginning to be a part of a musical community, but I wouldn't say I'm a country artist because I wouldn't want to invalidate anybody else or to even begin to be so preposterous as to think I can just skate into town and get some fans.