"Rookie" clinician Wendy Waldman visited the factory on June 5 and updated us on her various projects. Her down-to-earth, encouraging style certainly has found a home in her Taylor workshops, where she has been very warmly received. Wendy focuses on using the guitar as a songwriting tool, thus filling an important niche in our program. Few people ever will play like Doyle Dykes, but nearly everyone enjoys playing songs, tapping into their inner singer-songwriter, and discovering their own unique voice on the acoustic guitar.

While she was here, Wendy picked up a new 910e for herself and a 110 for her teenage son, Abe. After returning home to L.A., she sent the PR department the following e-mail:

"Came home exhausted and played my gorgeous new guitar. I couldn't resist giving Abe his, too, as his last final exam is today, and he was done studying. We sat and played some strange, cool new song of his -- two brand new Taylors ringing out in the house. That was some fun."

A pair of accomplished, Taylor-playing pals accompanied Wendy to El Cajon -- award-winning singer-songwriter Darryl Purpose (912c, 710) and composer, songwriter, performer, and instructor Paul Reisler (812ce, Baby), co-founder of the progressive folk ensemble Trapezoid and founder/artistic director of the Kid Pan Alley children's songwriting project. Both had a chance to sample the Expression System at the 1700 venue, and both left very impressed.

Wendy also brought a few copies of a just-finished CD, Seeds and Orphans. This is not the new studio album she's been diligently working on for quite a while. It's a collection of very new, very old, and very good songs that she's written or co-written for a variety of people and purposes, and which are emerging into the sunlight together for the first time. The "handmade" graphics and simple packaging give Seeds the vibe of an "authorized bootleg", but beneath the funky surface are well-made recordings that offer indisputable evidence of Waldman's tunesmithing prowess. We'll run a full review of Seeds and Orphans in the Fall issue.

Wendy will be visiting the Northeast in the fall; dates and locations T.B.A.