Pastoral Resources

I try to tell a story musically in a song.

I think some people record songs and make records a certain way to cater to radio. If you're born to make commercial music that's cool. But if you're born to not make commercial records, maybe you're meant to cater to another market.

That's really what was wonderful for me growing up, since I got to know so many of the songwriters who liked me and thought I had talent. They would then tell me how to read a lyric and sing a song, and challenge me to try and find a different end to a song.

We teach young kids from 8 to 14 or 15 about their musical heritage through great songs written by American songwriters. We don't do too many modern composers, although we include songs from Billy Joel and other writers like him.

'Tis easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows along like a song; But the man worth while is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong.

I usually have an idea of how I want a song to sound, but I don't always know how to get there.

I mean, whose songs don't focus on tragedy and loss?

I feel a lot more comfortable being me these days. I'm constantly told that my work is good. A lot of fans and a lot of other artists say my songs and albums mean a lot to them. Isn't that what's important?

I guess you could write a good song if your heart hadn't been broken, but I don't know of anyone whose heart hasn't been broken.

We just did a few takes of a song and just picked the best one. It was real organic and genuine.

Some of their best songs don't have bridges and choruses. So that made me think I should trust my instincts. My songs were okay, I figured. I didn't need to change anything.

The old jazz singers or old blues singers, you always just saw them kind of sitting down and singing. They weren't worried as much about their voice sounding perfect. They would make the song kind of fit their voice.

I don't like giving names to generations. It's like trying to read the song title on a record that's spinning.

Quit shouting those rerun songs at me.

I don't really think about having had a hard life. It was just my life, and it's all I knew. It made me who I am - all the good and bad - and it's where all of the songs on Here For The Party came from. I've lived them all.

I'm always imagining some sort of story behind the song, even the ones I haven't written. I'm actively engaging in playacting.

Everything I do is collaborative. It's just my way. I'm really very interested in how the other musicians perceive the song.

I like 'Bewitched' off the first album because it's one of the happiest songs I've ever written and, as any writer will tell you, happy songs are a million times more difficult to write than sad songs.

The longer one is alone, the easier it is to hear the song of the earth.

The songs were really complicated. I used to meet people in bar bands who were trying to play our songs and they were really struggling with it. Technically it was really difficult stuff.