I've done covers of other people's songs since the beginning.   Looking over the various collections of my tunes a fair-sized portion of my "hits" have been covers:  "You've Got a Friend", "How Sweet it Is", "Up On the Roof", "Handyman"...so this is not uncharted water for me. I've always thought that writing an original song and reinterpreting someone else's were similar processes;  just as making music is a lot like listening to it.What has been so memorable about this album were the sessions themselves: ten days in deep January in a converted barn in the woods of Western Massachusetts. It's remarkable and unusual today to put 12 musicians in the same place at the same time.  It's a type of "live" recording sadly seldom seen in these days of the overdub.  You get an immediate energy and it's a whole lot of fun.  It sweeps you up and it carries you along and when it's done, it's done.