Barnes & Noble.com: It's been four years since your last album, DREAMING FROM THE LABYRINTH, and you've been writing a lot during that time. How did you choose which songs to put on this record?

Tish Hinojosa: I did have quite a bit from which to select. What helped me make the choice was that I wanted to be really universal on this. I saved a few songs -- family stories, story songs, social justice songs, what people might usually think of as "Tish things" -- that'll go on the next record. But for this one I wanted to pick something more general -- but at the same time there are pieces in it that are really intimate also.

Barnes & Noble.com: It seems like a very personal set of songs...

Tish Hinojosa: Yeah! So it's kind of hard to explain why I chose this song over that song. But there's a sequence to them, the questioning in the first part, then down to "Fence Post," which is the bottom of the pit, and then coming back up with the acceptance of "Roses Around My Feet." It's definitely about change and, I guess, hope.

Barnes & Noble.com: It's quite different from the LABYRINTH record.

Tish Hinojosa: LABYRINTH is my moody child, so to speak -- as much as I love it. I wanted it that way. I wanted the darkness in there. But with this, I wanted to be a lot simpler in my writing and in the melodies, and I wanted to have fun with it.

Barnes & Noble.com: What about the title song, "Sign of Truth"?

Tish Hinojosa: I've gotten mixed responses to that song. Some people think it's contradictory: I am talking about wanting love, youth, and all that stuff, and then it ends up that it's kind of like I'm searching for riches and money. I guess it's about the things we find we want as we grow older. I wrote the song because, you know, at one point I was thinking If I died tomorrow I'd be thoroughly satisfied. I have a nice body of work, good kids, I've had a good life. But then you don't die tomorrow, and you have to go on to the next rung, to keep moving. If you stop moving, then you will die. So for me, I find myself in that constant search for the future, for security, for someday -- and for success and money too!

Barnes & Noble.com: About "Fence Post"...

Tish Hinojosa: I don't usually write something that dark, even for myself. It's one of those I really thought about before putting it on the record. But you know, look at the work of Roseanne Cash -- and I really love her stuff, just about all her songs are about the dark side of relationships. I don't usually do that in my writing, but that was really the way I was feeling the day I wrote it. I guess if somebody else can ever hear that maybe it will help them the way it used to help me to hear Linda Ronstadt sing sad songs back when I was younger and didn't write, and they'll say, "Yeah, I can relate to that feeling."

Barnes & Noble.com: Then there's "Wildflowers."

Tish Hinojosa: That's just a joy, that and "Hey Little Love." They're both so playful and upbeat. It was fun and sort of poppy to bring the horns in there on the melodies. I wrote both those for my kids. They love wildflowers.

Barnes & Noble.com: Whose music are you listening to these days?

Tish Hinojosa: We just played Merlefest in North Carolina, and I heard Laura Love for the first time. I appreciate it when I can hear a voice that's uninhibited. And she's doing really creative things with her music, too, not just showing off a good vocal. I had to go get a CD of hers for my son, who's about to turn 16. He likes roots music with an edge like that. I listen a lot when I'm traveling, mostly to people like John Prine or Lucinda Williams. On this trip I've been enjoying Greg Trooper's latest album -- that's really good. I also like to listen to instrumental music a lot, classical and some new age things too, just to listen to music with no words.

Kerry Dexter
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