Way across the country where the hillside mountains glide, the dynamo of your smile caressed the barefoot virgin child.

What I like is natural music. It's like I was born with a gift to do something naturally, which I have no choice but to followup on.

I realized I was growing up or something like that. You have responsibilities...you've got to think about getting your act together. I didn't even know what it had been doing to me. I didn't realize how dangerous it was. People talked in terms of drugs and I used to think in terms of...well in Ireland, everybody drinks. Nobody gives it a second thought. You're Irish number one and you're a drinker number two. That's the first two things about us Irish.

I went back to Belfast and started a club, the Maritime. No one had thought about doing a blues club, so I was the first.

I wanted to find out why I wasn't getting off on what I was doing and try and make some sense out of the evolution of it.

I've been in America for almost ten years. I've had many parts of the American experience. I've been all over this country and seen many different parts of it. It's just that I'm not an American. I've never become an American. I'm talking about the whole thing-psychologically, citizenship, the whole trip. Of course I've definitely been influenced by America-I'm definitely influenced by the music and the culture.

When you perform live, it's a different trip - it's different energy. I just felt a conflict between both of the trips. I was trying to evaluate what it meant for me to be a singer/songwriter and what that whole thing all meant.