"STEWART: That’s Abigail Washburn, who’s joining us on the TED RADIO HOUR. And the theme this hour is the creative process. Abigail, is there any environment that really helps you tap into your creativity when you need to write or you need to think about lyrics?
WASBURN: Yeah, it’s a - a big reason why I just sang that song. Something that’s really, really powerful for me when I need a new idea is I listen to the old ones.
STEWART: Mmm.
WASBURN: I go turn on Blind Willie Johnson or I go get my “Goodbye Babylon” box set and I start listening to old preachers preach. Or I listen to old speeches. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech always sends me down some path, some trajectory of some creative idea. Yeah, I listen to the old to get an idea for the new."
