Let Them Talk: Chatting With House's Hugh Laurie, Dar Williams and The Axis of Awesome, Plus Cal Ecker's "Time After Time" Premiere

A Conversation with Hugh LaurieMike Ragogna: We have Hugh Laurie on the line right now, don't we?Hugh Rosetta Stone software Laurie: You certainly do. Greetings listeners.MR: How are you, sir?HL: I am very well, thank you. How are you?MR: I'm doing well. Hugh, you have a new album, Let Them Talk, which is New Orleans blues based. How did you come up with the idea?HL: Well, that's always been my first love. I was really responding to an incredible opportunity. A man from a record company came to me and said, "Do you want to do a record and what would you like to do?" My first reaction was, of course, to say, "No, you're out of your mind. That way lies disaster," but as I was about to say that I realized that there would quickly come a time in my life when I would not be able to do such a thing, this opportunity wouldn't come my way twice necessarily. I didn't want to be the guy who looks back and says, "I could have done that." I wanted to be able to say, "I did do it, and however it turned out, at least I did do it." In life, I think we don't regret the things we do, only the things we don't do. So, that was my feeling, Rosetta Stone Greek and I said, "Yes." I jumped at it.MR: Beautifully said. Now, the artists that you cover on this album are amazing--Leadbelly, Jelly Roll Morton, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, so many more. How did you choose the songs?HL: That, in a way, was the most enjoyable part. In collaboration with Joe Henry, my guide counselor--well, he's my producer is Rosetta Stone Hindi V3 what he is--he's my Obi Wan. We spent months and months trading lists of hundreds of songs that we both loved, and that was really the best part of it. We were able to say, "You've never heard this...? You've got to hear this..." It was such a wonderful thing to share in someone else's musical taste, and then share a combination of tastes. Gradually, we whittled those hundreds down to dozens, and from there we went in with about twenty and recorded almost all of them. A couple of them didn't make it, but we're keeping them in our hip pocket for next time.MR: Very nice. [ Rosetta Stone Software ] And you're aiming at a next time, aren't you.HL: Well, if someone will give me the nod, absolutely, I'll jump at it. Of course, that's for the great record buying public to decide, or the record downloading public, however it works out. Yeah, I would absolutely love to do it again.