My letter was so late this year that I had poor Ellen pulling out her hair. The delay this time was the result of waiting to see if I had permission to write about what you wanted to know.

As I have been teasing you for some time, I have been working on a new CD. I had been collecting possible songs for months and a direction had started to emerge. The problem was that I wasn't willing to hand it over to someone else's vision. It's been a long slow process that stalled out for months until I finally got up the nerve to ask my label (Manhattan Capitol/EMI) for the permission to produce the CD myself. That was the first big step.

With that behind me, the hunt for songs and arrangers went on. Things really clicked into place after Billy Stein, my former 2nd keyboard player, sent me some examples of his work. You will all remember him as the one who made the Ederettes swoon every time he was introduced. He left touring in order to concentrate on recording and to (sorry girls) have more time at home with his young family that includes a new baby girl. I remembered how talented Billy is, so I asked him to send me some examples of his pop arranging. I was very impressed with it and also fell in love with one of the songs. I played the song so much that I started to think maybe I could sing it. We did a quick demo as a test drive and suddenly the direction of the album fell into place. I knew I had to convince the label, so Billy and I spent many hours in his studio working on some tracks. This process was delayed by a sinus infection that I was forced to sing through during concerts and during the demo sessions for the album. It stressed my voice to the point that, unable to sleep one night due to pain, I almost made an emergency trip into Manhattan at 2 a.m. to visit my voice doctor. She was not available so a heating pad and Advil allowed me to sleep. That was the night before the Englewood, New Jersey concert. I showed up at sound check on the day of the show not knowing if I would make it through the concert. The stage Gods smiled on me — I survived.

I left the next morning for a week of skiing with Craig in Vail, Colorado. Nice way to heal. I highly recommend it.

The day came to present my idea to the label, and instead of four completed demos I had only two. I felt extremely good about the tracks but nothing is a sure thing. There is no way of knowing how the powers that be will react. I was going from Judy Garland songs to… well, you'll see. I spent a few hours on pins and needles but then got the call I had been hoping for and working toward for months. All the hours with Billy in the studio paid off. We have been Green Lighted.

So we forge ahead. It will still be a long process. Making pop albums is very different from making a Standards or Broadway album. It's been a while since I've been on this horse, but it feels good to be back in the saddle. This direction is actually truer to who I am as a person in life, and in many ways it is my truer voice stripped of all the Garland/Streisand influences. There is no template in my head, no guiding track to steal from or mimic. It's freeing and frightening and wonderful. In many ways, it is going back to who I was when I first stepped out of the box. I'm making an album for the original Linda. Standards and Broadway will always be a part of what I do and as I get older it's the obvious choice, but I'm not willing to take up the walker just yet. I've done a lot of things backward in my life, like living my 20's in my 40's, so I guess it's only fitting that I make this album now.

This album is a different direction. It's a different road from the one I have been on for the last several years. It's not an unfamiliar road. I have been on it before but never as successfully and completely as I wanted to be because (I have to say it) I was not driving my own bus. Someone else had the wheel, and I was an unsatisfied but much too silent passenger. If I was dissatisfied with prior results, I have no one to blame but myself. If you don't speak up, you end up where you don't want to be.

I have no doubt that your opinions of the new CD will be divided by your own personal tastes in music styles, and I am prepared for that. You've gone with me down all the different roads, and rest assured that I will always return to the roads you chose. I like them as well, obviously, but this is the road I am on now and I'm moving down it happily, and I think I'm making a CD that my Dad will actually really like. I know my Mom will like it. My son already loves it. Now he's tough!!

I'm on a new road because sometimes change is necessary and good. There will by many changes as a result of this. New sounds, new faces, new looks. Sometimes you need permission to change. I have been Green Lighted.

Sara Whalen
I just want to take a little time to say something about Sara Whalen. I don't know what the future of Pets Alive will be. A place like that, surviving so often hand to mouth, requires a person like Sara who gave 100% of herself in order to make it work. She was a unique woman who gave back so much because animals gave so much to her. I didn't know her as well as you may think. I only met her twice, but it didn't take more that a few minutes with her to realize how deeply her love of animals ran. That's the reason we chose Pets Alive. You can't fake that kind of love and devotion. Not all changes are good or welcome and life often changes in a heartbeat. We all have someone who depends on us. Take care of yourself so that you can be there for them for as long as possible.

We would love to hear from you! Please write to THE VOICE at lethevoice@comcast.net
or feel free to share your comments in THE VOICE section of the Linda Eder Message Board.