PM: Since you seem like possibly kindred spirits, are you friends with Greg Brown or Steve Earle?

FE: I know Greg a little bit, I know Steve just to see him backstage, I'm not really friends with either guy.

PM: What songwriters today do you admire?

FE: Lucinda's always been the one I admire the most. Oh Susannah and Audrey Auld, I like both of them. And a Canadian named Dottie Cormier, I like her new record a lot.

PM: Read anything hot lately?

FE: Yeah, a book called A Fortune Teller Told Me. I can't tell you the author, but that's the one that got me thinking about the whole heroin question.

PM: What might the U.S. stand to learn from the Canadian music scene?

FE: To not pay any attention to it, and to keep doing what they're doing. [laughter]

PM: When and where do you tend to do your songwriting?

FE: Anywhere and everywhere I can, I write songs all day everyday. Endlessly. I write in the bus, I like to write in the morning, and I like to write while I'm doing something else. In other words, when I'm distracted, watching TV...then I don't have my head up my butt. I'm not thinking about myself too much. I don't want it to be about me, I want it to be about the song.

PM: Let's have a little something about Ellen Russell, and about Bluewater Music.

FE: Ellen Russell is my manager. She was a good friend of mine, and my neighbor, when I lived on the farm, up in Canada. She got laid off shortly after that time, and I said, "Well, you have good administrative skills, you should be my manager." And she turned out to have good negotiation skills. And today she is a very sought after manager in Canada, and a damn good one.

PM: Who's your man at Bluewater?

FE: Brownlee, of course. He's my buddy, I don't really have a man at Bluewater.

PM: Are they getting cuts for you, or...?

FE: Well, the cuts come along, it's such a weird career. Nothing's gonna come to me easy or traditionally. You know? [A few people are gathering outside the bus to talk to Fred, cowriter friends like Christy Sutherland, who's pictured with Chi-Ann Ragsdale and Fred. The road manager is also indicating that showtime is approaching.]

PM: Last question. What do you think is on the horizon for you, what would you like to accomplish that you haven't so far?

FE: The movies would be fun. I'm way more successful than I ever thought I'd be. I guess I could live more comfortably, but not much more comfortably. I'm red lining now, as long as I don't blow the motor. I don't want one of those hooker buses that look like a bachelor pad or anything, you know. And I don't wanna have to live away from people. I don't really want much more than I already have.

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photos of Fred, pages 1, 4, and 5: FG