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FD: And I do feel that your music brings that point home all the time with all the albums
I've listened to since I've known of your career and met you and seen you in person as
well, too.
Getting back into the album, now this new album, "One Mississippi", is officially out on
the end of January 30th.
FD: The title track, in fact, is a Janice Ian song, who's no stranger to... Turbulent times
with her— one, I mean, she's a massive singer-songwriter, but of course, "At Seventeen"
, but are you ever nervous covering other songwriters' songs, their children, so to speak?
EB: That's a great question. You know, I've covered some really... wonderful songs by
other writers, including Janice Ian
and Bob Dylan and Guy Clark. Eric and Janice Ian
EB: But the thing is, you know, that
song was a song that came to me in
a special way.
Janice is a friend of mine. We went
to high school together in the High
School of Music and Art. Yeah, so
we're classmates. Yes, we've
managed to, with huge gaps, but
lately we've been able to really
reestablish contact. We've run into
each other in Australia on tour.
other festivals and we've had
contact.
So she asked me to be a part of a tribute to her music in Dublin a couple of years ago.
And we were given the assignment of finding a Janis Ian song that we wanted to cover
in this tribute concert. So scrolling through her work, I stumbled across this tune, ‘One
Mississippi’, that she wrote with a man named Fred Kohler, a co-writer.
And I was intrigued by it because it really fit my whole, you know, bluesy kind of
repertoire. There's so many wonderful Janis Ian songs, but that one seemed to stick out
just because of that bluesy element.
And so I learned it. I found a way into the song that was a way that was true to the spirit
of their writing, but also was my spin on it. And I got comfortable with it. And then I
realized that not only did I want to record it because it was a powerful song, but it really
seemed to frame a lot of the ideas and themes of some of the songs that were included
in this album. So it became the title track. And I'm just, I'm thrilled because it says so
much, you know. The one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi. You know,
that's the way we used to count seconds. You know, that was the duration of the span
of a second. But it also has that kind of double entendre because, of course you know,
Mississippi conjures up so many images and ideas, especially when it comes to blues
music. So it just was a perfect fit, you know.

