Friday, May 20, 2011

CDs and Red Glitter Shoes

Someone asked me recently, “If you could only listen to one artist for the rest of forever, who would you choose?” Oh, what a tough question. I know you think you know the answer.
Did you guess Bill Gentry? I do love Bill’s music and the guys in the band are amazing; Bill would probably be my choice if the question was ‘if you could only go to one concert, whose would it be?’
Did you guess Christian Kane? I have been overheard saying that Christian could make The House Rules at my house any day but...
As much as I love Bill and CK, over the last few months, I have fallen head over my red high heels with the sounds of Steve Carlson. If you remember, Steve was one of the first Monday Music Reviews on this blog and since that time, I’ve realized that I was only scratching the surface of understanding what a goldmine I had found. I knew I liked him but I had no idea just how much.  I like him to the point of having four CDs and to round out the complete collection, yesterday I was beyond excited to learn that the one CD I didn’t have in my collection was back in stock so I ordered it for myself “for my birthday” (or so I tell myself) from a company called CD Baby.
Today, I received the following email from CD Baby:
Your CD has been gently taken from our shelf with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our world-renowned packing specialist lit a local artisan’s candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in our private jet. We hope you had a wonderful time shopping with us. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on the wall as our “Customer of the Year”. We are exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back and shop with us again.
In my little mind’s eye, I pictured my CD being spruced up and sent off in the same way Dorothy and the gang were fluffed and fancied before they were supposed to leave the merry old land of Oz. Since that is one of my favorite movies (and probably where my love affair with red shoes began), I've now connected CD Baby with happy childhood memories and automatically believe my CD is in good hands, coming from a good place. Any company that takes the time to be that creative and to give that much attention to an email that could have simply said “Your order has been shipped” is the kind of company that I can easily share my hard earned dollars with, even if it’s only a few bucks for a CD.
And, for some reason, even though he probably had no hand at all in CD Baby's message, I suddenly like Steve Carlson all that much more. Just knowing he's connected to this company makes him seem somehow more romantic, more sentimenal, more nostalgic, and even more like someone I'd want to be "a friend with" instead of "a fan of".
I hope today that you have a CD in your player that makes you feel sentimental, something in your email inbox that brings you an unexpected smile, somewhere to go tonight that makes you feel like wearing your red shoes, and someone in your life who makes you want to come back home again.

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