I spent my first 10 years in the Commonwealth. I come from cricket, crumpets, cucumber sandwiches, the Queen.
Living in England has no such excuse: These are my customs and establishments.
Living in England is fascinating: I discover a new world every day.
The old culture had come out of poverty, out of English customs.
Americans are always mortified when I tell them this, but in England, it's a tradition to put your plaques and photographs and awards and gold records and stuff in your bathroom. I don't know why.
England as a culture has endured so much more than America has as a culture, so it's given them a different perspective.
It's interesting to marry American musical traditions with the subtlety of English-style storytelling and folk singer-songwriters like Martin Carthy and Bert Jansch - they're two heritages that are distinct but also cross over on so many levels.
English life is seventh-eighths below the surface, like an iceberg, and living in England for a year constitutes merely an introduction to an introduction to an introduction to it.
There are no secrets about England - they are searching for positives.
England, a happy land we know, Where follies naturally grow, Where without culture they arise, And tow'r above the common size.
Nine English traditions out of ten date from the latter half of the nineteenth century.
It just seemed like a lot of my work centered around England for a number of years.
