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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.
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