Nothing blasé about Ben

-

There are a few musicians who stand out in my mind as great creative artists. Ben Rector is one that's at the top of my list. Take a year like 2020 where you can't be on tour because of the Coronavirus pandemic and you see what a musician is really made of.

I don't know him personally at all, but follow him on social media and noticed that his family had twins this summer, plus they have a toddler... so they're definitely busy. Earlier he released a song called "It Would Be You" and challenged people to make music videos and share them on social media tagging them with #coffeedadshuffle. It was something fun to follow along with as part of the craziness of covid. There were hundreds of people that submitted videos and here's a link to the compilation.

But, that's not all... this week he just released another new song, that I understand came from a void he noticed while working on a new Christmas album. He noticed that there are tons of Christmas songs, but none that really celebrate Thanksgiving. So he wrote one. Enter "The Thanksgiving Song". And like most work that I've seen from Ben and his band, there's nothing about it that's blasé. The song itself has heart and empathy for everyone that's been through 2020. It has thankfulness and a personal story that most people can relate to as it talks of seeing grandpa in his nephew's eyes and without saying he may have passed we get that feeling as he talks about his mother's teary eyes.

The chorus is catchy and full of thanks.

"So fill your plate and fill your drink
And fill this house with family
The kind of love that all these years can't wash away
Cause the older that I get I see that life is short and bittersweet
Thank God for this Thanksgiving Day"

Then there's the lyric/music video that he put together for the song... It's fantastic. As a creative myself I have an appreciation for things done well and this one was. A ton of effort was put into it from the graphic design of all the thanksgiving ingredients to the cookbook to the realistic nature of all the elements that were put together to make the lyrics flow so naturally through the video. The transitions were spot on. Without giving too much more away just watch "The Thanksgiving Song" video it's worth your time. I'd say it's a great way to announce that you're releasing a Christmas album as well.

Thanks, Ben for staying busy this year and continuing to work hard putting out nonblasé music amidst the challenges of a tough year. Our family has enjoyed it and we look forward to a stellar Christmas album coming out soon.

Popular posts from this blog

Are you thankful?

-
Are you thankful? How do you show it? Do you write a note? Do you tell someone? Do you make a list? How do you express thankfulness? It always is good for me to think about and express thankfulness to others and God. Never have I gone through the practice of giving thanks and been disappointed. Thankfulness gets the focus off of me and onto others and God. Having meals brought to us in the past week after our new baby has brought the idea of expressing thankfulness to others into focus for me again. I wrote a few thank you notes to those that brought meals and it just feels good to do that. Plus, the act of receiving thanks is good for others as well. I ask our kids quite often when they're whining, "Are you having a thankful heart?" And sometimes I ask them to tell me one thing they're thankful for. It's good to get in the habit of being thankful.
Read more

Sending notes

-
I haven't been big on new year's resolutions lately, but I do like the idea of challenging myself in areas where I'd like to get better and setting goals for myself. Something that I've been thinking about doing is sending a note to someone different every week of the year just to say thanks or I'm thinking of you or praying for you. It wouldn't be hard to do and I know it's good for me as well as I think most people appreciate a little note. The other thing I've been thinking about along those lines is sending video notes. I heard this on a podcast recently. Since we don't see people as much these days it's easy to just record a video on your phone and email it or use a service like Loom to record your video and send a link or use an app like Marco Polo. It seems like this would feel even more personal than a note... though I haven't done it yet. So maybe send a note today to someone that's helped you out recently or maybe to someone who
Read more

Choose your own adventure

-
Do you remember the "Choose your own adventure" books? You would start the book and then as the story progresses the characters face forks in the road and you get to choose which way they go... which results in going to a specific page and continuing to read. I've been spending a considerable amount of time on marketing automation in the last month and these books from my childhood remind me of how marketing automation works. The big difference though is the customer doesn't realize he's choosing his own adventure as he navigates the communications we set out before him. He's simply making choices based on the marketing that we're putting out there and then based off of what he chooses we choose for him the next communication he receives. As I'm building this out I'm starting out with a pretty blank slate. There's a lot we don't know, but as we get more information from prospects and customers it will become clear who they are and what
Read more