I Don't Do Comparisons Because I Always

For Me, Art Is A More Trustworthy Expression Of God Than Religion.

Isn't That The Goal, As You Grow Older? That You Start Reclaiming Those Parts Of Yourself You Didn't Recognize Or Didn't Think Were There All Along? That's What Happened When I Made The River And The Thread Record.

When I Was 18 Years Old, I Went On The Road With My Dad After I Graduated From High School. And We Were Riding On The Tour Bus One Day, Kind Of Rolling Through The South, And He Mentioned A Song. We Started Talking About Songs, And He Mentioned One, And I Said I Don't Know That One. And He Mentioned Another. I Said I Don't Know That One Either, Dad, And He Became Very Alarmed That I Didn't Know What He Considered My Own Musical Genealogy.

If You're Playing In A Tradition And You Have No Reference Point To It, No Understanding And Have Not Studied It, I Can't Respect That.

The Religion I Have Is Music. Even The Times I Have Headaches, When I'm Singing, I Can't Feel Them. My Dad Used To Say That, Too, Especially Near The End Of His Life. He Would Be In Pain - A Lot Of Pain - And He Said The Only Time When He Didn't Feel Pain Was When He Performed And Sang.