The singer-songwriter has always played music that was stylistically rooted in the '30s and the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. But the fact of the matter is that none of us remember the Depression firsthand.

Every leap forward that I make is by reaching back and firmly getting a footing in the past, and pushing forward as hard as I can.

My dad was in a wheelchair and on oxygen for the last few years of his life.

Fundamentalism, as practiced by the Taliban, is the enemy of real thought, and religion, too.

I'm constantly warning people that are involved in my life that I can go busk and make a living. I can make my rent in New York City in the subway, I promise, if I'm forced to.

Maybe I'm not as big a star as Bruce Springsteen because I'm not as good. I don't know. It doesn't matter. I still have an audience of a certain size. I think it's one of the things I'm luckiest.

Having a child at 55... that's optimism.