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" I'd been trained in choral, gospel, and a little bit of opera. "

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" Singing in church is a very different approach to music. It's very much about transcending the idea of self. It's about finding something greater that connects all of us. Gospel music is about tapping into that. "

" The women and the men are teachers and preachers in my family, and a little bit of both those fell on me. "

" At 16, I was going to church and playing music for church, and Dad would only pay for piano lessons so I could play at church. "

" I'm so grateful for just the inherent mercy of life. "

" It's very hard for me to place myself alongside another artist. Everyone has something unique to express. "

" I've always loved the woods, and I've always loved gardening and a lot of solitude and quiet. "

" I see 'Grace' as an affectionate refusal of things that just aren't true. With all our power and money and influence, we still can't raise up high over people's consciousness. "

" I've begun to realize, as I'm getting older, that I was taught to go for a certain kind of stillness to get things done. I missed that in my life. I loved my grandmother's property, out in South Georgia right above the Florida line, so I just thought I'd find some property where I could feel that again. "

" I call myself a singer-songwriter influenced by the gospel and jazz tradition. Naturally, because of my lifestyle and love for nature, there's a lot of folk and Americana there because that's just my life. "

" I love singing all types of genres. "

" Gardening is a working meditation for me. It helps me remember process, and it helps me remember patience. "

" There's a beautiful, kind of seductive trap in being autobiographical in our writing of songs: We just get stuck in our own syrup, and it's so personal that it almost can be embarrassing to the listener. "

" I want to record, tour, and just live life. "

" I love songs that create moments that are very personal and that tell a story. "

" I love talking to other musicians on tour and finding out what we all have to do, not just as artists but as business people. A lot of us are investing and trying to use social media. It is such an interesting level of responsibility and engagement on all these levels. I don't know how one can do this without absolute commitment and faith. "

" Life is good. It might not go the way we plan it, but that's fine. We just do what we can. "

" There's a lot of pressure that comes from the mainstream stuff, and already people who have been saying - people who don't know any better - have been saying things to me like, 'You should really think about neosoul. You'd definitely be more successful in that.' But that's not my expression. "

" Music is primal: when it's done without pretension, you can really feel the shape of someone's soul. "

" I didn't wait around for my parents' opinion about my venture out into contemporary music. "

" The whole musical institution of the church involves a lot of different styles of communication at the same time. Things like call and response. Sometimes they use the music to pray and work things out. And there's so much repetition in gospel, it's like churning butter. "

" Whoever is playing with me, they participate in the arrangement; I learned from Craig Street to really pool the stories and the skill and the voices of everybody around you on the bandstand to build an arrangement in the moment. "

" As a southern woman, we often define ourselves by who we are with. But I wanted my life to be built differently. "

" I think living in a way that's close to nature makes you feel like that - makes you feel how thin the veil is between life and death. "

" I always want to do good work and enjoy doing it. "

" I know how to make myself comfortable. "

" Making a record and being a touring artist is about cooperation between spirit, craft, emotion, and focus. "

" Where I fit genre-wise, it's hard to tell. It's a fickle wind. But I have to believe there's always going to be a place for the songs inside of me. "

" What I learned about singing in the church has gone into what I do now. "

" Surrender is working with what happens. "

" It's hard to know who you are until you're cracked open a little bit. "