​Neil Peart was my gateway drug to all things drumming. In 1989 I bought the live Rush album "A Show Of Hands". I was three-fourths of the way through, already loving what I had heard and knowing I would be playing that cassette again and again. Then I got to the drum solo. That was it. I was done. I didn't know you could do that with the drums. And as I eventually learned... most people can't. But beyond his amazing drum skills and his fantastic lyrics, now looking back I think one of the coolest aspects of Neil Peart is that he showed there was a place in the world of rock music (and in the world in general) for those of us who were introverted geeks who loved to read. - Cris

Cris: Did this whole process [recording a concert with a symphony] change how you viewed any particular song of yours?

Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls: That's a really good question. Gosh, I'll have to think about that for a second, stop and think about it. I just have to say that the arrangements, they bring the songs to life in a way that I didn't experience before then. And so now, even when Amy and I are playing as a duo, I hear those arrangements in my head. So, I think that they've ... You know how orchestral arrangements can be. 

They get used in movies all the time because they evoke emotion. They can make you feel things in a very big way, when the orchestra kicks in. I think it's the same way with these songs. To have that beautiful sound, now, as part of the landscape of the song, is profound. What I end up feeling is, those arrangements really bring the messages of the songs home. 
I'll pick a song like “Mystery.” It's about a relationship, but it also describes the end of summer and what it feels like outside in the weather. It's describing these two people and the mystery of what's going on, both in the physical world and in their relationship.

The strings just make that like a movie inside my head. So I think the arrangements just bring the songs to life in a new way. But I wouldn't say that they make me stop and think about the lyrics in a different way. They just sort of heighten the experience.

Kryz Reid talks about an amazing moment during a Third Eye Blind concert. [Watch the clip on YouTube]

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John McFee of The Doobie Brothers talks about his admiration for George Harrison. [Watch clip on YouTube]

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John Thomas Griffith of clients Cowboy Mouth on being a self-taught guitarist and picking up riffs here and there. [Watch clip on YouTube]

Kryz Reid of Third Eye Blind talks about Stephan encouraging him to have a distinct guitar style. [Watch the clip on YouTube]

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John McFee of The Doobie Brothers talks about how music was a refuge for him when he was a kid. [Watch clip on YouTube]

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