I've been traveling extensively outside the United States since the early sixties… I've gone all over the world to play my music… [W]hen a friend of mine in Paris played Edith Piaf's music for me, I loved her. She struck me as a French Billie Holiday. Not her music, but her way of living, the way she hurt, the way she reached people. She didn't hold back... In the seventies I was also in France when I heard this guy playing a haunting Charles Aznavour song called "For Mama." I couldn't help but make a record of it myself. I dig Latin-American music. When those Spanish singers start moaning low in minor keys, I'm there with 'em. I also love Mexican three-part harmony groups with male singers. They make all sorts of interesting twists and turns, the rhythm is hot and the sound fascinates me. Traveling around the world opened my ears. << less