How did Joe Henry’s approach affect how the album came together?
The way this record was made was a first for me. In a nutshell, Joe was an old-fashioned producer in that he brought along his team that he usually works with on records, including an engineer, drummer, and keyboard player. All of those people that worked on Knuckle Down have made a bunch of records together at the Sound Factory in West Hollywood. I sort of plugged into Joe’s scene there in LA and brought in my tunes, my fabulous bass player, Todd Sickafoose, and a few guest musicians. So, Joe was really involved in the pre-production and the assembling of the cast. Then, when we got in the studio, I just went to work with the players. We tracked two tunes a day, and that included teaching the songs to the band. We laid down the record live in six days. Tell me about your songwriting process. For me, songs are born with a guitar and my journal at my side. My various guitars have different voices and they function as my singing and writing partners. The unique qualities of a guitar’s vo
