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" I'm kind of a subtle person. "

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

" 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. "

" I really just want an audience that is willing to let me live my life and share with them what I get out of my life. "

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

" I'm a preacher's kid, I'm big-boned, I have giant feet, and I've always been able to run fast, and so I had this sense of, 'I can't fail. I'm invincible. I'm made of green juice and concrete; nothing's gonna happen to me.' "

" 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. "

" Jazz has a lot to do with being very present. You know the structure, then you flow through it. "

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

" 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. "

" Salif Keita's one of my favorite artists. "

" The truth is, when you want a great show, it's not 'entertaining' the audience - it's you sharing with them... an experience of communion. "

" 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. "

" I live just above a creek, and it's always very active. It almost sounds like the ocean. It's constant, and there's lots of big rocks in it, so it's got a great sound. It's one of my favorite things. "

" The church is an institution of music and of production and performance, and it has to do with taking people to places inside of themselves and giving them an opportunity to sit deep in their own feelings, and to be together and deeply alone at the same time, and to process things. "

" A lot of people in the African-American community are raised by grandmothers, and that relationship is a special bond and circle. "

" I've always been genuinely interested in the spirit world. I've seen things I will never talk about because I'd be a fool to. You can't lay out that world in words. "

" Where I come from, music is not a business. Sharing music is a business, but music is not a business. It comes from the people and belongs to the people. "

" I'm a real Otis Redding fan, and I just think he sounds so good. He sounds like he's always at the end of a long day, and he just won't give up. I just love his wearied devotion - that beautiful, beautiful, weathered sound. "

" I think of myself as an interpretative singer and a songwriter. "

" I get bored very quickly. "

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

" 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. "

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

" I never left jazz. The relationship between structure and improvisation - that constant conversation and tension - I've always wanted in every genre and song that I perform. "

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "