Pickin' and Grinnin'

Over the years, I earned a slew of free CD's from the BMG music club but had never redeemed any of them because I hate their website and I never could figure out exactly how to do it.  Recently I received notice that the free CD's were to be eliminated and I only had a few months in which to redeem the ones I had earned or I would lose them.  I figured out how to navigate the website PDQ and ordered about 12 CD's (got free shipping to boot!). The stupid people at BMG shipped my order in like five batches. (When they're giving away free CD's and free shipping, you'd think they'd want to ship them all at once, but that could just be me.)  

The good part about that was I had the chance to savor and enjoy each CD for a while as it came in.  Some I liked better than others, but they were all pretty good.  A week or so ago, I received a message that one of the CD's I had ordered was not available, so I had to make another selection.  I was kind of distracted and not in the mood to shop for music, so I sort of picked a random CD without thinking much about it.  It came in the mail the other day, but I didn't have a chance to listen to it today.

I went for a two hour walk and listened to it twice. It is the best "walking music" I have besides Jimmy Buffet.  It is also far and away the "happiest" album I have ever owned.  I've been very depressed lately. This album hit me like a half-bottle of Zoloft (I guess: I've never taken any actual anti-depressant medicine).  I caught myself walking along smiling today.  It is more than feel-good music: it rises all the way to the level of soul-healing music.

The album: Three Pickers  The artists: Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs and Ricky Skaggs (with Allison Kraus on some vocals). 

It just don't get any better than that!