Page 12 - ISI_164_OctoberNovember

Spotlights
PAGE 12 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT • OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2020
Take Note: Musician Elevates
Her Craft During pandemic
and she wrote an a-cappella version before
BY KEN lEVY putting the tune to her mandolin.
Here is the first verse:
What happens when a senior musician Hello from a distance, stay safe and healthy,
suddenly loses all her gigs to a pandemic? please.
If you’re Wendy Matson, you write a The Plague of 2020 brought the whole world
song about it. to its knees.
Matson, who turned 70 in June, was Thought we all were separate, what kills you
playing solo concerts to seniors in Boise- won’t kill me.
area nursing homes when Covid-19 began We thought walls would protect us, but bugs
to run rampant. She was playing four gigs a don’t have no boundaries.
week, alternating with about 13 area nursing Other lyrics delve deeper into the con-
homes, when the bad news struck: With sequences of the pandemic’s spread.
seniors being among the most vulnerable to She finds much of her songwriting
the disease, nursing homes naturally were inspiration while hiking, swimming, or
among the first to shut down to outside otherwise immersing herself in nature.
visitors. “Nature is my muse,” she said. “Some
“I was as busy as I cared to be,” Matson songs come easily, others do not, but I’m
said, “then wham! Unemployed on March 14.” always excited and happiest when writing
She also lost any further chance to be songs in nature.”
singing with Common Ground Community The lyrics for “My Caribbean,” another
Chorus this season after Covid caused the tune she said “wrote itself” in 2019, came
canceling of all rehearsals and perfor- to her while she was enjoying a refreshing
mances through the fall. Wendy sang first swim in a local, secret swimming hole with
tenor with the 50-plus-member chorus her dog, MacGregor. The song reaffirms her
for three years and has performed solo folk life choices, without apologies:
pieces with the group in concert. She hopes I may not have money in a 401(k)
Covid-19 will recede quickly, so she can or stocks in the market, don’t trade by day.
resume rehearsing with the group when it But I know a place where I can go
gathers in the fall. Just me and my dog, all alone
After adjusting to life without most of A beach for two, water clean as a pool
her income, she wrote the song, “Hello My Caribbean, my Caribbean.
From a Distance” in April, in about 30 “Most of my friends are well off finan-
minutes. The title phrase popped into her cially,” she explained. “I chose to be an
head while hiking in the Bogus Basin area,
GET THE Your caregiving journey can be
FAMILY challenging in all kinds of ways.
You never know where it might lead you next.
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artist and can’t afford cruises like them.
But I chose my life and I have no regrets.”
Later this spring, despite the volatility
of Covid, she managed to get back to per-
forming for one group of nursing-home
facilities with six locations. She’s allowed
to play outside to small audiences for one
hour a week, rotating through the locations
throughout the months.
But that’s not all she has in the works.
She has released five CDs over her career
and is preparing to record a three-song
music video of her original work, written
for vocal and mandolin. Besides “Hello
From a Distance,” she’ll record “Stories of
Our Lives,” which speaks to the inspiration
she’s garnered from teachers and mentors;
and “She Sings to the Waterfall, She Sings
to the Stars,” which speaks directly to the
choices she made when it was time to leave
home and strike out on her own.
She also continues working on her Best
Friend Project, as an advocate for the wel-
fare and responsible care of companion
animals through her music. Matson said she
has enough tunes written to record at least
another full-length CD of songs related to
the bonding between humans and animals,
mostly dogs.
“My 12-song animal story collection will
be my next project,” she said. The songs
relate stories of loving bonds between ani-
mals and humans. Once recorded, she plans
to give portions of CD sales to the Idaho
Humane Society to help shelter animals.
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