And it really is a good feeling to get up there and make that sound. I'm not stuck in a time warp, because I can use as many of the old songs as I want to, just the favorites.

I reformed the Hot Licks, and in essence it was just adding girl singers for the first time in decades and hitting the road, playing out a lot with this six-piece band. The advice through the years had been to have girl singers with me again, so I did that.

About 10 years ago, I took some vocal lessons. I'll bet that helped. I got a tape of exercises that the girl gave me, which I don't do anymore, but they were good. And I don't smoke.

I was always looking to record, but how much I actually pursued it was another thing. The major labels weren't that interested in me, and the smaller labels didn't have any money to do anything.

I guess my idea of a good audience is one that's quiet and listens, but also that's alive: they respond, they're getting the jokes, they're with me. And that' s been happening.

There's some pictures of me playing hollow bodies, but I never last long. I always come back to the acoustic.

I haven't been drinking for years now. Something's got to give. I don't mind that I'm a guy that's stopped drinking, though this interview is making me mighty thirsty.

Acid was kind of a thing that was done on the day off. We took one trip, got in four or five cars and headed out to the lake, this Indian Burial Ground, we made some films, super 8, you can see us running around in the dark, stayed out all night, no sleeping bags, that didn't seem strange, just lay down on the ground to sleep, on acid.

There's been a big buzz about the Charlatans in the last couple of years. I've heard the word Charlatans more in the last few years than I'd heard it for the previous 20 years. People would interview me for years and never even mention the Charlatans.