ND: Well, it's a marvelous disc for past, present, and future. Oh — I can't forget to mention "Mr. Lear." I was so in love with Edward Lear...

AS: A lot of people in America don't know him, but he was a big deal in England. People know "The Owl and the Pussycat"...

ND: I grew up reading his nonsense poetry, all his stuff. Lewis Carroll, too.

AS: Well, you're an exception, Natalie Davis, and exceptional...

ND: I don't know about that.

AS: Trust me. If you walk out the door, go through 100 people and find one person who knows Edward Lear the 19th-century nonsense poet, you're lucky.

ND: True. Most probably would think of the guy who put Archie Bunker on TV.

AS: (Laughing) Absolutely right. I grew up reading Lear too, though I think Lewis Carroll was actually a much better nonsense poet, but Edward Lear was there first. I don't think he had a very strange life, but the only person — well, the only creature — he was close to or had a great love for was his cat. When his cat died, he died. Just one of those odd things.

ND: He died of a broken heart.

AS: For his cat, who actually appears in a caricature on the cover of the album.

ND: Yes, I saw that and nearly wept. I love the way he draws. I actually have some framed reproductions of his engravings. They just bring back so much from the life of a little dorky child.

AS: Some of the lines in "Mr. Lear" are amazingly understated, but they nail it for me. "The world..." I don't have it in front of me.

ND: (reciting from memory) "The world is a lot more mysterious than we knew..."

AS: Yes! That's a wonderful line, to my way of thinking. "Mr. Lear" has some of my favorite lines on the album. They're not showy or flashy, but of course, the world is more mysterious than any of us knows, and it's the sort of line that Edward Lear would have written. I was trying to channel his writing style.

ND: I think you got it, because it rings very, very true.

AS: What is it? "Unusual things..."

ND: "Unusual things are prone to wander."

AS: Yes — prone! (Both crack up yet again.)

ND: Another word that does not appear in popular songs. And it's tough to wander while prone.

AS: And, of course, Edward Lear would have said, "Unusual things are prone to wander." I can see him writing that line. Again, it's not a line that jumps at people, but it should, and there are a lot of lines like that, but they're written in a very understated English way.

ND: Well Al, the whole album is a delight. I'm so blessed to have had had the opportunity to hear and review it, and I'm really, really happy to have had the chance to talk with you about it.