Pastoral Resources

Dreamland is a book, but it's my song in book form. It's translated itself into a different medium.

You know, that single girl life and that sense of isolation - that doesn't leave you just like that. And that's what that song is about. I remember that, and that is imprinted on me, that sense.

The songs certainly have not made my fortune, but I am still grateful for the royalties when they come in.

The songs come from a vulnerable place, but expressing that part of yourself can also make you feel fearless.

I'm sure every song has some kind of undertone of what I was going through with Chris. It was my life.

I think the themes in my songs are very similar from the first album to the newest one. It's all about the human condition and how we are all trying to learn to live with each other and survive love and life.

When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil.

When I record somebody else's song, I have to make it my own or it doesn't feel right. I'll say to myself, I wrote this and he doesn't know it!

I start a lot more songs than I finish, because I realize when I get into them, they're no good. I don't throw them away, I just put them away, store them, get them out of sight.

This is the bunch of songs I did first, and it's just the type of thing I do. I am a Carter Family girl, so the record is book-ended with Carter Family songs.

I had all the material for a long time, but I was just too busy. Sometimes we'd sit around at home and sing some of these songs at family things, and everyone always said I should record them.

I found it was really impossible for me to write songs when I couldn't sing.

When my dad died a lot of songs came, and they're still coming.

I became the unnatural son of a few score of beaten men.

There are no rules to writing a song.

I write a lot, and very often I write a couple of lines that are particularly revealing in some kind of way. And then as a few more lines get added and a piece gets added, eventually the song pretty much takes over and you can't really find a way to change those things.

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our deeds.

Every man is the son of his own works.

There are no bridges in folk songs because the peasants died building them.

The thing I try to do the most is to play in terms of the song and play in terms of what I'm hearing.