Well, TGIF, once again.  Last Friday I kicked off a new category called “My Favorites –  Every Friday.”  I thought I would share things that I love every Friday – whether it is a recipe, a song, a book, a website, a thing to do, etc.  So this Friday, I’d like to share a little story about Colbie Caillat, a songwriter/singer of acoustic based pop songs that most of you are no doubt familiar with.  Her song Bubbly (currently my ringtone, compliments from my daughter) has been popular for some time now, and some of her other songs have been hitting the airwaves as well.  

My sister introduced me to her debut CD, Coco, this past winter – her songs playing in the morning as we were chatting with coffee in hand in front of a roaring fire.  Her songs are fairly mellow, but have beautiful melodies, and are very soothing and relaxing to listen to, each one flowing into the next.  And best of all, it is such a pleasure to discover a CD that you can listen to from beginning to end – there is not one bad song on the entire album.  As Colbie states:  ”If you listen to an album like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, every song has its place.  If you took one away you’d spoil the balance of the entire record. That’s the kind of album I wanted to make. It wouldn’t feel right to have my name on a record that was just a few good tracks and then lots of filler.”  See the youtube video of Colbie singing her song Oxygen – set to a homespun collection of photos of one of her fans, which are kitchy and whimsical at the same time – but leave you with that goodish feeling.

The other magical thing about Colbie Caillat (only 22), is the source of her success.  One year she’s sitting at the front desk of a Malibu tanning salon checking clients in, the next year, she’s a runaway success.  How did she get there?  By posting, at the prompting of her friends, her songs on her MySpace page.  Nothing much happened at first, but then the song Bubbly went up, and immediately started attracting attention.  In four months she had 10 million hits, becoming the number 1 unsigned artist.  Obviously that attracted the attention of the music labels…and she thereafter had a record deal.  

So, at 22, a very wise woman – an overnight success by promoting herself on a social networking sight.  There’s no telling what can happen in today’s world.  So if you need some music to unwind to, relax to, and feel good about – check out Colbie Caillat’s Coco.  And isn’t she adorable?