Felice is a good girlfriend.  She listens to my podcasts.

I no longer do.  It’s too embarrassing.  Oh, I listened to the first few for technical glitches.  But all problems/issues have been ironed out.  And, I used to tell you about them, but it seemed like too much self-hype.  And that just doesn’t feel good.  I figure if something is good enough, word will spread.  And I’m sick of today’s society wherein everybody’s saying LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME!!  But today I listened to the just-released podcast because of Felice’s e-mail.  I just couldn’t figure it out.  The line wherein she asked whether I’d spoken to her for me.  HUH?  It made no sense.  Had Felice wanted to convey something to Celine, who sometimes engineers and always assembles the podcast?  Then my brain clicked.  Felice was speaking of Wendy Waldman.  You see their fathers were in the same line of work.

And then I wanted to hear the podcast.  Because I remembered liking it when I did it.  Because it was emblematic of my MOOD!

Great work comes from getting in touch with your inner tuning fork.  If you can convey the feeling you have inside to your audience, with no filter, with no self-consciousness, you can do something great.  And you know what?  I think this is a damn good podcast.  I like what I had to say.  Shit, I don’t think I could ever replicate it.  But the reason I want you to listen is because of the MUSIC!

Well spring is here
I feel it in the air
The world is turning green

The wind is sweet
I smell it everywhere
And I know that God must be smiling

Before the dot com crash, at the Aspen Artist Development Conference in December 1999, swag included a Rio 500 MP3 player.

It came preloaded with the usual paid-for label crap which I listened to once, to familiarize myself with the unit, and then I placed the device on the shelf.  Until October the following year.  After installing Napster (Macster!) on my computer.  After taking hundreds of tracks I wondered…could I put them on the Rio?  Oh, I knew you could do it theoretically, but too often there was a software glitch, it’s not like the iPod and iTunes today.  In 2000 we were still living in the dark ages of OS 9, and extensions.

I loaded SoundJam.  Hooked up the Rio.  And VOILA!  The songs moved over.  All thirteen that could fit within its memory.

I got a pair of headphones.  I plugged them into the unit.  And started to listen to Wendy Waldman’s "Spring Is Here".  And the experience was so FANTASTIC that I donned a fleece and went into the cold night air.  Under a thousand stars on this crystal clear night I heard the above lines.

But it’s not only the lyrics.  Or the way they’re sung.  There’s the INTRO!  Played on a zither I believe.  I’m not sure.  You see I don’t have the vinyl album.  That’s in my ex-brother-in-law’s garage.  I hadn’t heard it in twenty five years.  On a whim I took down from the Net songs from Wendy Waldman’s third album that were like DEAD SEA SCROLLS!  And on today’s podcast, I play a handful of them.

The people who make this kind of music today…  Their material is half-baked.  Sometimes they have a good voice.  Other times they can play their instruments.  But they just can’t write songs.  Oh, Tori Amos could, before she flipped out and lost her way.  Not that Wendy Waldman is Joni Mitchell, but the whole package, the way she delivers her own material, it’s so affecting that you become ENRAPTURED!  I wouldn’t think of leaving the house without my iPod and the 53 songs of hers I have in my iTunes library.

Oh, you might be familiar with some of Wendy’s material.  She wrote Maria Muldaur’s "Vaudeville Man" and "Mad Mad Me".  And she co-wrote Vanessa Williams’ phenomenal hit, "Save The Best For Last".  And she’s still out there, working at it, mostly behind the scenes.  And her music would be fading away completely but for the Net.  This is your opportunity to hear her.

Download the podcast.  You can subscribe by searching on "lefsetz" in the iTunes Music Store.  Or you can go directly to the Rhino site and listen/take it/download it there (hold down the "control" key to download on a Mac).

Now if you’re a punk, or a metalhead, I don’t think this is for you.  Oh, I make some salient points, but this is really about the music.  And this music is for those who’ve lived long enough to reflect.  Which is really everybody about six or older.  You know how you’re alone and your mind wanders?  Sometimes into places it should not go, other times to good things?  This is music for that experience.

My segment of the Rhinocast begins at 12:04.  Before that you can listen to an interview with Kris Kristofferson, whose new album is a return to form, if you so choose.  But be sure to listen at exactly the demarcated point, a dozen minutes in, because then you’ll hear "Spring Is Here" and you’ll feel what I feel.

And, if you want more, you can go to Wendy’s recently established MySpace site.  There you can hear her version of "Mad Mad Me" from her second album, "Gypsy Symphony".  And "Love Has Got Me", the title track from her debut.

More like this and I’ll be a believer once again.  Someone with talent channeling straight from the heart, that’s what touches me.