I had heard a lot about Willie Nelson’s new “reggae” album recently. I passed it off as some overly-hyped thing that usually turns me off…
I don’t know how it came up but Elise and I started talking about Willie Nelson tonight as I was looking into a new flatbed scanner on eBay while sitting at the bar and while Elise was making a milkshake in the kitchen. I hit the iTunes Music Store and sampled Willie’s song: “I’m a Worried Man“. Elise and I, without prompting nor a head nod, immediately found ourselves in a groove. Elise was twisting and bobbing while blending her milkshake. I, at the iBook, stationed at the bar, was deeply and rastafarianly bouncing and turning my head in two directions to the rhythm. We could have easily been the b-roll for the opening credits of The Cosby Show. It was hot.
So, I bought the song, “I’m a Worried Man” for $.99 from the iTunes Music Store. I played the song 4 more times on the stereo in the living room via AirTunes. The bass was awesome… the hardwood floors were rumbling.
I revistited the iTMS and sampled more of the Countryman album. All of the songs are fun. It really is a great album. I haven’t listened to the lyrics yet – but it’s one of those albums that you just crank up while driving to New Braunfels in route to a killer toobin’ adventure. It doesn’t matter so much the lyrics, it’s just a fun album from a head bobbin’, neck jigglin’, Cosby Show intro perspective.
So I decided to buy the entire album (or “record“). Since I had already purchased the “I’m a Worried Man” song, I was asked if I was sure that I wanted to buy the entire album. What was I to do? 12 songs on the album. I had already purchased one song for $.99. There were 11 songs left to purchase. $9.99 for the entire album or pick the other 11 songs that I hadn’t yet purchased for a total of, yes, you guessed correctly, $9.99.
Could I return the one song? Instead of omitting one song, I purchased the entire album. So the music industry got $.99 out of Joe Consumer. It was for a Willie Nelson album… and a pretty cool album for that matter. I have some awesome en-route to a toobin’ music for next year!
On a personal note: my family moved to Cat Spring (population 17 and a coon dog) when I was 11-years-old. My parents had donkeys (Domesticated Ass would be great name for a band) for agricultural write-off purposes as they had a house on 35 acres of property in the country. Our donkeys received awesome names like: Dolly Parton, Earl Campbell, Kathy Whitmeyer, Loretta Lynn and Willie Nelson. I have a deep-rooted and personal relationship with very important people. And donkeys.
So now I’m groovin’ to reggae music by Willie Nelson. All I see in my head is a donkey hanging out with Ricky Williams and they’re both buying music from the iTunes Music Store.