Q: Lucinda, when did you know that Essence would be the album's title track?

A: Well, it was after we had already done the record. I was going to call it Broken Butterflies at first. But then I think what made me change my mind was when we' we were working on the single for Essence and we did the artwork and everything. And the cover that we used for the single is a beautiful photograph of these flowers, real close up, sort of a Georgia O' Keefe kind of a thing. Real bright colors and, of course, the title Essence over the flowers and everything. And I was really taken with that cover for the single. And we tried putting the words "Broken Butterflies" over the flowers. And we thought about using the flowers and putting butterflies on the flowers. And it just -- nothing was working, you know. And I kept looking at this single just looked so good just the way it was, with "Essence" and the whole essence of the flower and all that, how it all ties together. And finally, I just said, 'Why don't we just call it Essence' Why don't we just call the album Essence, and just go with it'' So as soon as I told everyone that, they all said -- they were all so delighted because everyone was wishing I would call the record Essence. Secretly, they didn't really think Broken Butterflies was right for it. And another reason was because every time people would ask me, 'What's the name of the record'' And I'd say, 'Broken Butterflies,' and they would kind of look at me sort of like 'huh'' And I'd say, 'Well, when you hear the song, you'll understand.' But then I thought, I want it to be kind of self-explanatory. I want them to hear the name Essence and just -- because when people hear that word, they just know.

Q: Have the songs on Essence been percolating for years or did they come pretty quick?

A: Some of them came quickly and some of them were songs that I finished that I'd started years ago. Actually, "Out of Touch" I first wrote in Austin in 1981, if you can believe that. That's how long I've had that song percolating. And it's gone through all kinds of changes. And somehow it finally came together for this record.

Q: When the songs come -- how do you get out of your own way to receive them, because they seem pure and universal?

A: Yeah. That's part of the art. I don't know, it's hard to explain. I almost have to go into a Zen-like meditative state when I write, you know. And I really do get in that kind of state. And I go in and the reason I know something's working is because I -- it makes me -- it affects me physically. I actually start to cry a lot of times when I'm writing, when I get to that place inside the song. And that's when I know it's working.

Q: The songs on Essence , some of them have a different tack for you lyrically. For some, you've let go of the narrative and they're kind of impressionistic like these images on "Lonely Girls". Was the shift kind of natural?

A: Yeah, it was. I wasn't thinking of that consciously. I don't know. I hadn't finished a new song in five years when I wrote these songs. So, when I started writing, I just kind of let it all come out and it just came out that way. And at first, I wasn't sure even myself because, I was so used to writing in the narrative style that I kind of questioned whether they were good enough. But then I was able to transcend that and just let them go and let them kind of be what they were. And I started playing them for people and people responded real positively. And you know, so it was real liberating in the end because I was able to just kind of go into this other place with the writing that I hadn't really done much like that before. So it felt good to be able to just, you know, write something with just real basic, simple lyrics and let the music do the talking.

Q: Lucinda, your vocals on this album seem more open that ever. They're vulnerable, sensual. Is singing in the studios becoming easier for you as you make more albums?

A: Yeah, it's beginning to. I think when I made Car Wheels was really the first time that I felt really good about my vocal sound. So when I made this record, I wanted to make sure I had a similar kind of sound in the studio. And I was singing through a really great mic and working with a great engineer, Tom Tucker, and --- who understood that. I mean, part of it is because I'm starting to write songs more for my voice. And that's been kind of a learning experience. I mean, I used to not make the connection between the songs I was writing and my voice, my range and everything you know. And I was writing songs more like [sings title] "Passionate Kisses". You know, that kind of -- and you know, [sings title] "The Night's Too Long". And on this record, I was writing the songs more like -- they're easier to sing. I mean, they're more sitting down -- it's almost like a jazz approach more.

Q: Your vocals have gone to a new place on the album Essence. And on the album, too, the instrumentation, to me, I thought of a tapestry, because the individual instruments, they're tightly woven, they blend. It's rare that things kind of pop out. How did the sound of the album Essence evolve and become so unique?

A: I don't know how it happened. I have to give Charlie Sexton a lot of credit for that.

Q: He produced the album.

A: Right. He co-produced the album. It was really a team effort. Bo Ramsey was real instrumental in establishing the base for the songs. He came to Nashville and we demoed the songs. We made this acoustic demo that everybody loved. I mean, Luke Lewis at the label was even saying at one point, "Let's just put the demos out." So we already had a certain vibe going, before we went in with the band. And when we recorded each song, we used the demos as a reference point. And we made sure we never strayed too far from the vibe on the demo because we captured -- it's a magical thing that happened when I demoed these songs with Bo. We kind of got into the thing of each song and the Zen thing of it. So we kept that going through the record. And then when Charlie came in, he was really instrumental in just kind of like adding, sort of like a puzzle. Like, he would sit and listen to this song and say, 'What could this song use to just make it even a little bit better.' He was just real good at building each song. Just taking it to that next step. But it was already there. Bo was with me in the beginning, establishing the thing of it, the Zen of it. And then Charlie came in and sort of went off on this whole other real experimental kind of direction. He put this Ringo style drum fill on "Steal Your Love". He put a six-string bass on "Essence". And so it just grew sort of organically that way.

Q: When you have these demos already and then you have players coming in like Jim Keltner, David Mansfield, Tony Garnier?

A: Reese Wynans?

Q: How do you instruct or direct the musicians to -- the vibe that's already there. Was that kind of you and Charlie just guiding them through it?

A: Well, see, Charlie wasn't really quote unquote producing the record until towards the end when we were doing overdubs. That's when I brought him in as a producer. Before that, he was a guitar player. So he wasn't really making those kinds of suggestions in the beginning. But -- I mean, I didn't really tell anybody what to do that much. There was very little direction. This is one of those kind of things -- you know, these guys are all so intuitive that we basically -- we cut all the basic tracks in six days. And we pretty much just went through the songs boom, boom, boom. And I would just go in with my guitar -- I mean, the guys, of course, had the demos of the songs. But there was very little rehearsing them. We didn't have any rehearsals at all. We just went in and -- there's a lot of first-take stuff.