I had just lost my dad and I remembered all the songs we used to go and hear at concerts, and the records around the house and sometimes we'd play together.

My last two records that I made were both quite pointed in one direction and I think I do my best stuff when it's all over the map, when there's a couple traditional things, a couple pretty rocking things.

I made records in the past that are as traditional as any other country records that have been made, but at the same time the records have a contemporary slant on it too.

A lot of people play to impress, but the really gifted ones play to move. That's the greatest point of ever doing this.

I am responsible for me. I can kind of take care of what I need to do and should do what I like to do.

I've never been in the studio where it felt like I didn't have a voice. Whether I was co-producing or producing by myself, this community is the one place where I really see democracy at its purest.

It is not fun singing about losing somebody like that, but at the same time it was easy to write because the memories were so real and vivid and so much a part of who I am.