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" Music creates complicity, and then you feel less isolated. "

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" I didn't come from a very rigid background, where there's a clan or a tribe or a religion. "

" Music is all starting to sound alike in the modern era. Afro-pop sounds exactly like L.A. pop - there's no difference, no ambience, no real resonance. "

" It's good to see more young people playing instruments. "

" I can't help what people write or think. If somebody thinks I'm a serious archivist, they're wrong. That's been a problem. It's a shame people take that attitude, because it affects how they listen to the music. It's a big mistake to treat any pop music that way. "

" I keep my mind on track, and I don't get mad, and I don't get frustrated. Well, I do... but creative work, it's a way of controlling all that. "

" The biggest inspiration I had was to take norteno soul music and fuse it with Mexican music. It was my great big idea to do that. "

" Sure, immigrants will do work that no-one else will do. There was even a movie about it - 'A Day Without Mexicans.' "

" You go through these phases. That's how life is. Over the long term, you just can't do one thing. I saw that back in the Sixties when I was getting started. "

Getting Started

" The Delmore Brothers is hit music - very, very popular - and it still retains that rural flavor and simplicity. I always think of it as family music, really, because families sang it. "

" Having my son on drums has made a huge difference. I can't stress this strongly enough, in terms of the groove space and style that Joachim gave me to instinctively play what I felt in a more free way, rather than feeling constricted. That's true on record and on stage. "

" Uncle Dave Macon was a great balladeer and banjo player from the early part of the 19th century... He would take a social problem or something that he was looking at and make up a clever little song about it, you know, in a language everyone understood, a man of the people. "

" I didn't want tunes that preach heaven: you know, life on Earth is bad and heaven is the only hope we have. I don't quite care for that. I mean, when people sing that stuff, it's good when they do it, but I didn't want to do it. "

" With country, it's hard to penetrate the thick layers of commercialism that have been applied like shellac coatings over the real thing. "

" To me, the essence of the music is the most important thing. "

The Most Important

" I toured around for years, but the road was always a drag for me. I never made a dime. In fact, I lost a lot of money - it was horrible. "

" People who aren't as interested in recorded music as they used to be will say, 'Oh, 'Buena Vista?' Loved it.' And I'll say, 'Well, how about any of my other recent records. I've been doing some pretty good ones. You like those?' And they go, 'Huh?' "

" If you're white working with non-white people, you will be branded as a colonialist by some people, regardless of your efforts or intentions. "

" I always loved country gospel from back when I was a teenager in high school and started listening to bluegrass quite a lot. "

" Critics don't sell records, unfortunately. No one reads what they write anyway. "

" Chavez Ravine is the dawn of Chicano consciousness. "

" Beautiful tunes are all very good and fine, and great musicians are always great, but that alone isn't enough. Most folks, when they see movies or hear records, need something that they find pulls them in, draws them in, and appeals to them beyond just the notes. "

" Travelling is hard. I'm no traveller. I hate flying, and I hate hotels. "

" Music is fragile: people die, and it's forgotten. "

" I always think you should push your envelope every chance you get. "

" I think I'm more relaxed; I think I'm more philosophical. I don't get worried as much as I used to about things. "

" It's crazy to make records nobody buys. It's just a waste of time. "

" People have all sorts of expectations which you can't meet. Me, I'm so reclusive I stay away from such things as much as I can. I never go anywhere. "

" I think all the music I do, which ties together, as far as I'm concerned, is fun and entertaining. "

" I give up on pop music. As far as a commercial entity, as far as pop music goes, I quit; I absolutely throw in the towel. I can't handle it. I can't do it. I can't be what they need you to be. "

" You have to be able to improvise and respond to what's going on around you. Then you might get a good piece of work done. "