“Something Fine” is taken from Jackson Browne’s first album, which came out in 1972. By this time, Browne had already established himself throughout the industry as a gifted songwriter and he was able to collaborate with some of the very best singers and musicians on the planet for his own recordings: singers like David Crosby, Graham Nash, Glen Frey, Don Henley, Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt; musicians like Jesse “Indian Ed” Davis, Albert Lee, Leland Sklar, Jim Keltner and especially David Lindley, whose inspired playing really defined Jackson Browne’s sound during his most successful years. Jackson Browne is now a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Jackson Browne is a fine singer but the best singers I everheard are Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, without a doubt. Still, they weren’t even close to being my favourite singers. The singers I was drawn to the most were all different – powerful singers like Muddy Waters and Big Maybelle, expressive singers like Graham Parker and LaVern Baker, soulful singers like Wilson Pickett and Etta James. One of my favourite vocals is Blind Willie Johnson’s “Black Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground” and he doesn’t even sing a word; he just moans and plays his slide guitar. A little anecdote about Blind Willie, when the two Voyager space probes were launched in 1977 they contained an audio-visual record of the human race and its cultures for the benefit of any extra-terrestrials that might intercept it. Included on the record was the music of Mozart, Beethoven and Bach, alongside Chuck Berry and Blind Willie Johnson. That’s saying something.

I got the notion to record my brother’s voice by listening to “American Recordings” (1994), by Johnny Cash (1932-2003). Producer Rick Rubin brilliantly decided to record Cash alone in his living room, singing and playing his guitar. By this time, Cash was past his prime – his voice was weak and he was never much of a guitar player and yet these recordings are so phenomenal they won Cash a Grammy award. Listening to Cash, I finally understood what it was that all my favourite singers had in common, that thing that I had never been able to put my finger on. Like Cash, all my favourite singers had real voices, human voices, with all the precious imperfections kept in. It was the sound of humanity.

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My brother has always had a human voice. To me, you can’t improve upon that and you’d be a fool to try – which is the basis of my belief that the music industry is now run by fools. For our recordings, I wanted plain, even minimalistic arrangements of songs that would showcase Bob’s voice. “Something Fine” does that and also allows the two of us to just sing and play, plain and simple.