Greg Brown on the songwriting well, 2000

It’s such a subconscious thing. It’s like this little song part of you fills up over time. It’s like a well, and then you just put your dipper in and dip it out. When you’re a songwriter, at least a songwriter like me, you have to work hard on your craft--if you hear something, you want to be able to figure out how to do it. But the songs themselves, I don’t know where they come from or where they’re going or why they picked me. They really are presents, and your job is to receive them and pass them on.

From the book The Complete Singer-Songwriter: A Troubadour's Guide to Writing, Performing, Recording, and Business

As I write I'm spinning Greg Brown's new CD The Evening Call (release date August 8). Brown's vocals sound very emotionally charged, in a deep gospel vein, at times bringing to mind Van Morrison...