Jennifer Warnes Bill Wyman

WEARER OF FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT

What music are you currently grooving to? Jorge Calderón’s new album, which will be released this year. I still like a variety of music, but only if it has that ingredient of ‘inner spirit’.

What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? I don’t have one favourite, but Paul Simon’s Graceland is right up there – along with most of Ry Cooder’s albums from the 1970s. I sometimes like to listen to my album Famous Blue Raincoat when I’m on a long drive, so that falls into ‘Favourite Road Records’.

What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?

My mother bought music at Baton Music Store on Center Street in Anaheim, CA, in the early ’50s. She bought me Brenda Lee, Hank Williams, Harry Belafonte, Mario Lanza’s Song Of India. Which musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be? I might have liked to be an opera singer, one with a happy marriage and a few healthy well-adjusted children! That said, I’ve always admired my friend Leah Kunkel’s natural vocal tone. She has the warmth of her sister Cass Elliot’s voice, but more intimate and soulful.

What do you sing in the shower? Whatever bits of song loops that remain in my subconscious from my dreams.

What is your favourite Saturday night record? Recordings that help me cry or dance, depending on my mood: the Cal theme by Mark Knopfler. Stevie Wonder or Curtis Mayfield. Emmylou Harris singing Boulder To Birmingham. Doyle Bramhall’s Bird Nest On The Ground. The Wild Tchoupitoulas. The New World Symphony. Sam Cooke.

And your Sunday morning record?

Stevie Wonder’s Ave Maria or Harry Belafonte’s My Lord What A Morning. Those, a ray of sunshine, a cup of tea, a dog and a close friend. As good as life gets.