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AE: So the Ferron of today doesn't go in that direction?
F: (laughs) No. There's one person that has to approve now, and that would be me. And it was that before that. There was a slight glitch in there that I guess I had to learn about.

AE: One can hear a pedal steel guitar on “More Than That,” “Already Gone,” “Goat Path,” and the title track, and an equally audible country feel to songs such as “Never Your Own.” Have you gone Nashville on us?
F: No. I probably was drawing from my natural inclination toward country music because I grew up with it. I never really knew rock that well. I suppose I could have put a mesmerizing rock thump under those songs, and managed to be as intimate. But, it wouldn't have fit the rest of the CD. I just let everything be what it was, like it was in the old days. The song tells you what it needs; you don't tell the song what it needs. I'm not a pop writer, and I'm not anticipating being on the radio or anything other than: there are some people in places all over the world who just want to know what I'm thinking about. It helps them. They tell me it helps them, and I think well, that's great, because it seems to help me too.

AE: I think you're definitely someone who has a strong connection to the audience. The aforementioned “Goat Path” clocks in at over seven minutes, and there have been songs on your albums throughout the years that often exceed five or six minutes or more. What can you tell me about the significance of working in the long form?
F: One: I don't have A.D.D., I don't have a problem trying to stay focused on something for a longer time. Some things can be said “cutesy” and “succinctly” and other things really can't. There is a kind of mood that you want to create to the music, with the music, that…it just ends up being longer.

AE: You can't create that kind of mood in two minutes.
F: Well, you can. But, if it's a nice mood, why would you want it to end? It was a hard thing to talk about Betty (Spears), her dying, and how I felt about it (in “Goat Path”). Sometimes what happens is the first couple of lines start and they set the tone and the meter, and then I just try to adhere it. If I went back through that song I don't know what I could take out to make it shorter. It would be like if you wrote a letter and then you took out page three.

AE: Everything belongs. You have been touring in support of Turning into Beautiful. What has that experience been like for you?
F : Well, all the new material is sandwiched between all the other material that people want to hear. The fact is by the time I'm off stage, and if I had to sing everything everybody wanted to hear before they ran home, I'd be on for another hour. Because people yell: “Do this, do that.” Well, you know, it's over. I mean, I've already been up here for an hour and a half, two hours.

It seems like the climate has changed. I suppose if the anti-war movement grows, and people feel they need to show up in bodily form to show their support, then I think the folk and the songwriter scene might change. But, there's a bit of an apathy going on. It might also be fear, and I would like to say financial stress. But, maybe all it really is people keeping their dollars to see the big acts; I'm not really sure.

I think the clubs are getting hit with some kind of tax that has changed their feelings about putting acts in. It used to be that I would go somewhere and I would get a hotel room, or maybe we would talk about the travel or something. But, none of that is there anymore. Some of the places don't even want to guarantee; they only want to pay you eighty percent of what comes through the door. Which is honest. But, if it's not your town, it's a tricky thing. Because you would expect a promoter to do that. I can't tell if it's that.

I didn't sing to young people, I didn't keep downing my writing, so part of it is that the audience I sing to would be happier going to a 4:30 show. I'm going to do a 7:30 tonight in New York City, which is very early in New York. But, I guess what their doing is we'll do a show and someone else is coming in after us. It's kind of like, hurry up, get through the show, get everybody out, and get someone else in. I can't imagine that Joe's Pub isn't going to have someone else tonight at 10:00.