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.
Nine English traditions out of ten date from the latter half of the nineteenth century.
England, a happy land we know, Where follies naturally grow, Where without culture they arise, And tow'r above the common size.
It just seemed like a lot of my work centered around England for a number of years.
