"Without music, life would be a mistake"

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

"My goal was never to be famous, my goal was to make people feel."

-- Buddy Damen

"Music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions, and if it’s in the bones, it’s in the bones."

-- Keith Richards

"To be part of what you're singing about is somewhat painful. You've got to climb inside it all."

-- Merle Haggard

"A pencil a napkin and a broken heart is all it takes to write a great song."

-- Buddy Damen

"Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues then not be blue anymore."

-- B.B. King

"Fall off a horse, get back in the saddle. Fall off the wagon, ya got ya a country song."

-- Buddy Damen

"My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I'd like to think I did that."

-- Etta James