Quotes from Joanna Newsom

I definitely don't subscribe to the theory that more instruments, or more vocal tracks, harmony, or double tracking the voice, is a good thing. People do their early albums very stripped down, then each album becomes bloated.

I am consciously trying not to make it sound Celtic or African.

There are some mornings when the sky looks like a road.

You should listen to a lot of different music.

I am not doing something that it is experimental music in relation to classical music.

The so-called positive press has in some ways been more difficult to swallow than the negative.

I played piano for about two years when I was a kid. I didn't play long enough to be really great.

The very first Walnut Whales recording was recorded just a few weeks after I had started singing, out of the blue, started singing. And the voice, you can hear how uncomfortable I am with it, and how terrified I am with it.

In high school, we studied a lot of poetical forms. I was really interested in the math that was involved and the strange live break ups. That gave me a great amount of respect for a rhymed stanza.

I have a deep rooted folk sensibility that I can't get away from completely.

I have a recording that I did of instrumental songs.

I wanted to write songs which I think is a different thing. I wanted to write music that is informed by folk music. The chord progressions are obvious references.

I am consciously not trying to bring in World Music elements. The ways that I work and feel are completely different in how they sound than someone playing the Kora in Africa would play it.

It's totally different. I usually don't tell people about the Pleased if they know me from the harp. And if they are there to see the Pleased, I usually don't tell them about the harp. I am nervous that these people will expect something similar.

I'm not a wanderer, which is funny because I'm on tour half the time. I'm a home, hearth and family kind of person.

The way that words fit together is always interesting to me. I love words.

I want to make music that somehow connects to the things that I love in America music.

If I ever met Dolly Parton for sure, I would just not be able to say anything. I love her.

Well, yeah, I wanted to resist the urge to thicken everything up with instrumentation, because I just felt like I was interested in seeing how the songs did on their own.

There's something fundamental to the harp that has retained its appeal my whole life. It's an instrument I am just in love with.

I started playing harp about fourteen years ago.

People in San Francisco and the East Bay have shown interest, done interviews, and have come to shows. I guess that the news travels fast out of this island that we are on.

I can't play my songs on the smaller harp. I have a Celtic harp. I can't do the key changes.

I give away CDs at shows if someone wants a CD but doesn't have any money. I wouldn't want to do that forever.