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There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical, questioning and often angry patriotism.

Country fans and country listeners deserve to have something better... a song that really has something to say, something that makes you feel something.

I didn't have a lot of overtly political songs. I think it was more the actions of the group that were threatening to the authorities, and also our political philosophies apart from the music.

But my point is these Civil War songs were gruesome. The hatred that's so bad in this country today, and for the past 10 or 15 years, bad as it is, is nothing compared to the kind of things people would write down and sing back in the Civil War.

I happen to love the patriotic songs of America.

I thought it was respectful to each country to sing in their language.

Country music busts the wall between performer and audience. There's a connection because there's a vulnerability, a confessional quality, to so much of the songwriting. Those lyrics take you in.

True country music is honesty, sincerity, and real life to the hilt.

Well the country songs themselves are three-chord stories, ballads which are mostly sad. If you are already feeling sorry for yourself when you listen to them they will take you to an even sadder place.

Country singers put a lot of soul into their songs, and I enjoy that.