If you haven't already done so, get thee to our podcast section at www.goldminemag.com and give a listen to our interview with Scott Kempner. No, don't say, "Yeah, I'll get to it later," and then forget all about it. Do it now, before that short attention span you have, thanks to the hours and hours of television you've watched over the years, has you moving onto something else.

In a former life, Kempner was the guitarist for New York City proto-punks The Dictators and Americana revivalists the Del-Lords. He has a new solo album out titled Saving Grace, and it features contributions from members of the Del-Lords and the Smithereens, plus rock 'n' roll legend Dion.

Kempner's relationship with Dion is just one of the myriad topics touched on in this exhaustive interview. He also talks about his borderline obsession with collecting sheet music, his triumph over a debilitating, rare nerve condition, The Dictators' friendship with Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street Band and how he used to buy records at a place that later became an Italian restaurant owned by none other than Al Lewis (who played grandpa on the TV show "The Munsters").

A great storyteller, whose fierce love of rock 'n' roll comes through loud and clear, Kempner is somebody you could listen to for hours — and this is an hour-long podcast, so you'll be getting your money's worth, even though we didn't have time to talk at all about the Del-Lords (I promise, that'll come later, when the planned Del-Lords reissues come to fruition). If you truly love rock 'n' roll, you owe it to yourself to listen to this interview, and if you ever, through some twist of fate, have the chance to sit down and have a beer with him, you better do it. It'll be a conversation you will never forget.

To hear a little bit of Kempner's new record — think old-school Springsteen — and to learn more about what he's up to these days, visit www.myspace.com/scott kempner