Ben Harper on being the opening act, 1999

That’s been exciting--to be able to bring acoustic-based music to large audiences that aren’t necessarily there to see you. I’ll never forget opening up for P.J. Harvey-—she invited us to tour with her. I’d sit down with an acoustic Weissenborn in front of 12-year-old girls with black eyeliner packed in the front row, looking up at me going, “What in the hell is he playing?” But by the third or fourth song, the heads would start to nod, and then it would be on, you know.

From the book Rock Troubadours

For info on Harper's new double CD, Both Sides of the Gun, click here.

Chris Smither on meeting Bonnie Raitt, 2003

When I was first starting to play [in the '60s], Bonnie Raitt was Dick Waterman's girlfriend, and I didn't even know she played the guitar. She certainly wasn't playing professionally or playing at any venues.

She and Dick moved from Cambridge down to Philadelphia at one point, and I remember staying at their house one time when I was playing in Philadelphia. Bonnie and I were sitting around, and she said, "Well, what are you up to lately?" And that was the first time I ever played her "Love You Like a Man." She said, "You know, you should do some of those songs on slide." I said, "Well, I don’t really play slide." And she said, "Oh, it’s easy." She picked up this guitar and started to play, and it was absolutely mind-boggling. I had no idea that she played at all, anything!

From an Acoustic Guitar profile

Jewel on mixing media, 2001

I really like writing and drawing, and I get bored doing one thing too long. It’s sort of like if you are a farmer and you plant the same crop every year, it depletes the soil, but if you rotate crops it puts nutrients back in the soil, so when you go back to the same crop, it makes it stronger. For me, writing is like that. If I switch from songwriting to poetry, my songwriting gets better in my absence. Whereas if I do it all the time, it just burns me out. I don’t get any new information that makes my songwriting better. Sometimes just doing visual art, concentrating on pure shapes for the sake of shapes, makes my melody writing better. It makes my phrasing stronger.

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