Gregory Alan Isakov Has a Sheep Named T-Swift

Our sister paper in New York, the Village Voice, has a great story about Colorado’s Gregory Alan Isakov. In it, writer Dacey Orr talks to Isakov about his career trajectory, songwriting style and, yes, his sheep, T-Swift (“We love Taylor Swift. Everybody does.”). It’s one of the inhabitants of the farm Isakov shares with some friends. An early chunck of the story deals with Isakov’s passion for horticulture:

It’s a topic that elicits an audible excitement in his voice, the kind that makes you wonder if maybe you have been sleeping on the whole heirloom-vegetables thing. “We see them in the grocery store. They’re the weird-looking tomatoes, and it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s an heirloom!’ But we don’t really understand that those are varieties that have been kept for so long, hundreds of years.” You get the feeling he could talk for another hour about the benefits of these oddly shaped crops over the ones from mass-produced hybrid seeds.

He doesn’t, however, and the story moves on to other matters, such as his unusually spontaneous approach to shows — he says he plays at least two new songs during every set. The whole thing is an excellent read, whether you’re familiar with Isakov’s work or not. Go read the whole thing on the Village Voice website.