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OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2020 • IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT SPOTlIGhTS PAGE 13

short, hook-filled melodies and words.
“The goal is to stick in people’s minds
a memorable tune to hum to, snap your
fingers to, sing the words to,” she said,
while making her songs clear and concise.
“Lyrics take the longest for me; music
mostly comes out whole,” she said.
Every song doesn’t write itself, of course.
Some have taken her years to perfect.
“When I get a song written to perfor-
mance level, I always cry,” Matson said.
“That tells me the song is ready to perform.
But songs are living things: they evolve over
time. I may change a word or a note 30 years
after writing a song.”
She’s a stubborn perfectionist when it
comes to writing performance-worthy music.
“I take great pleasure in making every
song I write the best it can be,” she said. “I
don’t write throwaway songs.”
Matson toured in concert from 1982 to
1995 with country rock variety dance bands.
In 1992, singing harmony and playing bass
Wendy Matson at her Boise home. Despite the volatility of Covid, she managed to get back to performing with the Bobby McGee Band, she performed
for one group of nursing-home facilities with six locations. She’s allowed to play outside to small audiences on a Department of Defense tour of U.S. Air
for one hour a week, rotating through the locations throughout the months. Photo by Ken Levy.
Force bases in Guam, Hawaii, South Korea,
and Japan.
Matson’s love of dogs runs deep. She played concerts for veterans in the “I greatly enjoyed playing in bands all
MacGregor, who is a border collie/blue federal VA facility in Boise for 17 years, and those years. Learning other people’s songs
healer cross, accompanied her as a ther- for the state facility for four. helped me learn to write my own,” Matson
apy dog for four years when she played at The singer/songwriter, who plays said. “These days, I’m interested in doing
Veterans Administration facilities in Boise. acoustic guitar and mandolin, creates in my own material, and I have about four
Before him, Matson’s black lab/German the storytelling tradition of Woody Guthrie, hours’ worth.”
shorthair, Mocha Bean, accompanied her Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and others. She also She’s ready to share much of that mate-
for 12 years at the VA. touches on country music and tunes inspired rial in concert. For more details about her,
“They were the headliners,” she said. “I by the Beatles. The latter, she said, are her visit wendymatsonmusic.com. ISI
was the backup band!” top teachers of songwriting, with their

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