You’ve done vocal work with Vic Chestnut and John Wesley Harding, and bands like Yo La Tengo, Neutral Milk Hotel and the Silos. How many bands are you in? Well, there’s Lambchop, but I’d starve if that were the only thing I was doing. There’s the solo CD, and I have a trio for that. I have a gospel group [Deanna Varagona’s Gospel Jubilee] that does old time gospel, bluegrass and spirituals. We do five part vocal harmonies with standup bass, guitar, ukulele and so on. There are about 16 of us, but only about nine show up at any one time. We’re all atheists and agnostics, too. I guess that’s kind of weird. Oh, I have a pop band too, Shiny Stair Case. We only play on rare occasions though.

You’re living in Chicago now. Is it just me, or are there an awful lot of southerners involved in Chicago’s indie scene these days? There are a lot of Kentucky kids, and Kelly Hogan and me from Tennessee. And a lot of Georgia people too. I don’t really know why, but it’s great to be in a place that’s capturing the energy of all these people.

“Hesitation” is a great song about trying to find the energy to get out of bed and find a lover you suspect is with someone else. I have to ask, was that a real situation and did you ever get out of that bed? Oh, it was real, and no, I never did get up. Not soon enough to do anything about it anyway. And there’s no way I’m going to tell you who it was.

So it’s someone I’d … [cuts question off, laughing] Ain’t gonna happen, I’m not telling! The song’s about lying in bed and lying to yourself about something you’ve convinced yourself is a relationship but never really would be. That’s all you need to know. Oh, and I stole the chords. I was looking at the hands of some guy. I think it ended up being a C6 minor with an A in the bass or something.

How long did it take to put this CD together? Some of these songs go back years. I’ve just been collecting them as I go along. Most of my ideas, I just want to get on tape as soon as they happen. The problem is trying to put it all together afterwards. And I still have what’s basically an unreleased box set worth of songs. There just never seems to be time to finish everything.

Maybe that’s because you’re so busy. You don’t seem to be able to concentrate on one thing. I can’t just do three things, I gotta do five or six. If one band kept me busy enough and it actually made money, it might be enough, but probably not. I like being around all the people too. I come from a big family, so maybe that’s part of it.