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" I'm a traveler and a vagabond and an observer, and the songs come through that. And that's just the way it's going to be. "

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" I'm an old-fashioned folk singer. I stand in front of an audience with a guitar and a barstool. "

" My experience is that the universal is the personal. If you can get past your navel-gazing into the deepest part of yourself as a writer, you find everyone - we're all there. "

" I long for real and true connection. It has been the theme of all the songs in my whole life. "

" Soldiers are trained not to be vulnerable, but when they come home, they've got to learn it. "

" I think each veteran's soul has something that it needs to say. I know from my own personal traumas, it's very hard to know what that is. But when I'm watching someone else struggle, it's not as confusing for me, 'cause it's not my struggle, so I can help identify that. "

" There's an ocean of misunderstanding. It's called the civilian-military divide. I had a lot to learn about our military - who they are, what burdens they carry. "

Misunderstanding

" I've got lots of problems. Being gay isn't one of them. "

" Once I got my life sorted and started to get healthy, then I was able to focus on writing. "

" When you see validation for a life's work and dedication, it's a beautiful day. "

" I try not to eat cakes, but sugar screams my name. "

" I don't play everything I write. I mean, everything I write is not that good. I bring out into the world the ones I think that are really worthy of an audience's attention. "

" I love SongwritingWith:Soldiers. "

" If I start tracing, I bet I will find a writer in my family tree. "

" I would make a terrible soldier, because I don't follow orders. "

" When I finally got sober, I moved towards what I might have been if I hadn't been destroying myself when I was young. "

" I knew I had that Cajun heritage, that Acadian heritage; I just feel it. And my gut says Irish on the other side. Irish and French, that's what I feel. When you're young, it doesn't matter so much, but as you get older, I would suspect part of the ageing process is to wonder about your ancestors - who were they? What were their lives like? "

" I was in the orphanage in New Orleans until I was almost a year old. I don't think I ever got held by my mama, so that was completely and utterly traumatic. I think it was trauma from the first breath, and I think I've spent my whole life trying to heal from that trauma. So it shaped my brain. "

" I don't really write for catharsis; I get that kind of work done in therapy. "

" What I was told is that I was born to a mother who was a Catholic, while her boyfriend was not. They couldn't get married unless they put me up for adoption. "

" It can take me many months to write one of my own songs. "

" Art, when done well, creates empathy. "

" I think we're very much in a mystery here in this life and that artists try to pierce the mystery with their art. "

" I did not know that the wounds of war are often invisible. "

" Songs have been my greatest teachers and continue to be really important in my life. "

" I spent my 18th birthday in jail. Charges were dropped as long as I promised never to return to the state of Kansas. My parents took me home to Louisiana. I lasted there a week. Then I ran away. "

" I don't have the experience of being in a war. "

" I think, because of the kind of writer I am, I can't do it halfway. I can't do it without dedicating my entire life to it. I have to give it a hundred percent. "

" People in Ireland take in the whole song. After a long history of great singers and songwriters and poets, they are able to consume the entire song - not just the external; they go inside. "

" Melody's like tweezers that go into the infection and pull out the wounded part. You can almost not stay silent in the face of a melody that matches your emotion. You feel seen. "

" If I write for beauty and truth, the songs will find their way to me. Then, it's the songs that speak to the audience, and they can become part of the tribe that is into what I do. "