1. WHERE WERE YOU BORN, WHERE DID YOU GROW UP?

I was born in Houston, Texas. According to my sister, I never grew up.

2. WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST MUSICAL MEMORY?

I had a stuffed pink dinosaur when I was a little girl. It had a music box inside it's stomach that played Frere Jacques and a yellow daisy in its mouth. It had a long neck that flopped to one side from me holding it so tight. I slept with it all the time. I guess I killed it.

3. WHAT WAS THE FIRST RECORD YOU OWNED

J'Taime by Serge Gainsbourg with Jane Birkin

4. WHEN AND WHERE WAS YOUR FIRST PERFORMANCE?

I starred in "The Elf Who Stayed Behind" when I was in the second grade. I don't remember much about it except that there was an elf in it. It was a school Christmas play. I wore a blue velvet bathrobe with a marabou fur collar and I sang.

5. WHO IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST MUSICAL INFLUENCE ON YOUR WORK?

The Velvet Underground. I like the simplicity and depth of Lou Reed's lyrics and the way they project a childlike/dreamlike state. Their music is raw and real. And nothing about it seems commercialized.

6. WHAT IS THE MOST MEMORABLE CONCERT YOU'VE ATTENDED?

Patti Smith at 328 Performance Hall in Nashville 3 or 4 years ago. It wasn't very crowded so I was able to work my way up to the front of the stage. She was incredible. She read poetry and she sang really wildly. She was funny. It wasn't like going to a performance. It was more like a political rally. Afterwards, I wanted to start a revolution. She inspired me. Not many people do that.

7. WHAT IS THE WORST JOB YOU'VE EVER HAD?

Sorting crayons at a crayola factory. It's really hard to distinguish between Spring Green and Yellow Green after eight hours.

8. WHAT IS THE BEST JOB YOU'VE EVER HAD?

The job I have right now. I work in the ghetto. I'm a Dell funded homework assistant (I went to high school with Michael Dell, but that's not how I got the job). When I'm not helping kids with their homework I braid hair and play "The Marble Game." It'a a great job. My boss gives me lots of freedom (of course he's never there). I teach creative writing, chess and we have story time. I'm thinking of teaching yoga classes but I'm not sure anybody would come. It is hard though. I am the only white person there and I've experienced racism for the first time. Some of the people I encounter project all of their negative feelings they have about white people on to me. Witnessing all their problems has given me perspective and made me more grateful for what I have.

9. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE ARTIST (ALL MEDIA)

Edgar Allen Poe. He scares me. He seems to always have someone trapped behind something. Buried alive or behind a wall. I have huge claustrophobia issues and the idea of being trapped is very frightening to me. I've liked him since I was 9. I've always been fascinated by dark minds.
I'm curious about Lou Reed's "The Raven". Lou scares me too.

10. WHAT IS YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE BOOK?

"Are You There God It's Me Margaret?" It's about this girl who's getting her period for the first time. Actually I never read it, but all these 12 year old girls who I detested in school were always talking about it and wondering what it would be like when they got their periods. I'd already gotten mine three years earlier so I knew there wasn't a God.

I love anything by George Bernard Shaw. But I just finished reading "The Dance of The Dissident Daughter" by Sue Monk Kidd. It's a non-fiction story about a woman moving from her Christian upbringing to a more unorthodox sprituality. She has to shed all of the beliefs she was raised to have in order to find herself. She is willing to risk her marriage and pretty much everything she ever knew. I didn't grow up in a religious household, but I have tried, and am still trying, to rid myself of many of the beliefs I was taught to have.

11. WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE INSTRUMENT?

The guitar. I like the intimacy it provides. I've seen great guitarist play and it looks like they're making love to the instrument. That's how I feel when I play.

12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG YOU'VE WRITTEN?

I don't think I've written it yet. I thought I had when I wrote "Black Dog". Right now I like "Summer" alot. I think the lyrics have many layers and are relevant to what the world is going through right now, "Better get yourself a flower before it's too late." When I wrote that I was referring to spring ending and the Dogwood flowers disappearing, but now it seems to be about the impending war and our loss of innocence and all that is sweet.

13. WHAT IS THE FAVORITE SONG SOMEONE ELSE HAS WRITTEN?

Anything off of "Forever Changes". But especially "Andmoreagain" and "A House Is Not A Motel". I got to sing "Andmoreagain" with Arthur Lee at Arthur's aunt's house in Memphis. It was the first time he'd touched a guitar since he got out of jail, and it was my guitar! It has never sounded the same since.

14. HAVE YOU EVER COLLABORATED IN SONGWRITING?

I used to, but the truth is I don't want to co-write with anyone any more. I really want to keep exploring myself and find out what I can do musically.

15. CAN SONGWRITING BE TAUGHT OR IS IT A GOD-GIVEN TALENT?

I guess it depends on what kind of songwriter you want to be. In my mind, to be able to write you have to feel and you have to write from those feelings. Writing about loneliness isn't the same thing as writing from the feeling of loneliness.

16. WHAT SINGLE THING HAS HELPED YOU MOST IN YOUR CAREER?

My thumbpick. I can't play with a regular pick cause I always drop it in the soundhole when I'm strumming.

17. WHAT SINGLE THING HAS HINDERED YOUR CAREER?

Me. I am my own worst enemy. I spend too much time in my head, listening to my stupid voices. They lead me astray and then I realize I've spent an entire day fighting something that isn't even real. I'm getting better at recognizing them for what they are and telling them to 'shut up' sooner. But sometimes I still need to listen to them.

18. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE DRINK?

Carrot juice with ginger.

19. WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE POLITICIAN?
I don't have one at the moment, but my least favorite is George W. Bush. Everyday I read/see some new abhorrent policy he has instigated. He has quickly turned most of the world against us, and reduced this country to the vocabulary level of a second grader. "Evil, Good, Bad". The issues in this world are more complicated than that. He talks like a bad western. Too bad he isn't just a movie we could walk out on.

20. DESCRIBE YOUR LATEST DISC.

It's darker and more primitive than "Naked Time". It's me and my guitar recorded at home on 4 track cassette, with a couple of touches of bass, cello, tom toms and triangle more professionally recorded later. I wanted this album to be all me. It sounds best when listened to in an intimate, solitary, setting...like locked in a car. I bared a lot of myself on this album and I can think of three people already that aren't too happy about it. Musically, it's sort of a cross between Love and The Velvet Underground. Plus a couple of dog barks.