“Basically, songwriting for me is a little bit like John Lennon said, ‘Say what you mean and put a back beat to it.’” Stewart said. “It’s about letting everything just come forth very quickly and it’s not so much siting down with a white piece of paper in a quiet room for days writing poetry.”
Much in that spirit is “Cheaper than Free,” a duet with Stevie Nicks. “Reese Witherspoon was sitting next to me on a couch in the studio. I was saying I was going to Nashville and she said, ‘You can stay at my condo.’ I’d never been to Nashville at that time, and Stevie said, ‘Yeah, that’ll be cheap.’ And Reese said, “what’s cheaper than free?” He and Nicks turned it into a song.
Apart from the album itself, Stewart is looking to release a film at around the same time. Using footage from the production of The Blackbird Diaries with some fictionalization, like Joss Stone as a fortune teller and singer-songwriter Diane Birch as a hypnotist, Stewart put together a story where the entire process of coming to Nashville and making the album was something of a dream.
http://www.americansongwriter.com/20...rts-wild-ride/