Music Interview: Dan Penn

I’m talking to a songwriting legend, although I’m a bit worried that I can’t hear everything he’s saying. Dan Penn, Southern soul singer, songwriter, musician and record producer, is on the phone to me from his home in Nashville, Tennessee, but, every so often, he keeps dropping out. “It’s a wonder this phone even works – I’m down in the basement, in my studio,” he says, in his laidback, Southern drawl – he grew up in Vernon, Alabama. To be honest, I feel privileged just to be chatting to him at all. In the ‘60s, Penn, who is 78, co-wrote …