Jody Whitesides

Author: Jody Whitesides

  • The Dropping of Politics: Music, Tech Recovery, and Personal Growth

    The Dropping of Politics: Music, Tech Recovery, and Personal Growth

    Digital dilemma and a rare double sighting. Learning about the man, the myth, the legend, Wyatt Earp and eating a very gourmet dinner from Gordon Ramsey. Prepping the drop of Politics. It’s been a wild weekend in more ways than one.

    Starting with last Friday night, there was an insane amount of traffic that I have not seen the likes of in quite some time. Certainly not in the previous 7 months. A drive that normally takes an hour, took 2 hours. Ouch.

    Dinner

    Immediate turnaround to a sushi dinner after all that traffic. Nothing puts a smile on my face like a good sushi dinner along with sake and Sapporo. This particular place loves when my girlfriend and I show up. Mainly because we probably one of the few clients that will drink alcohol with a meal.

    They’re so nice to us, they give us free dessert. Along with calling us by name when we arrive. It’s a bit like being Norm when he enters Cheers. Don’t ask me to out the place as they’re already busy all the time.

    Digital Meltdown

    After dinner I found that my phone wasn’t operating properly. Pick up my iPad, same story. Open my laptop, same story. Uh oh. Cluster has suddenly had a major problem. No clue as to what caused it. That leads to a multi-hour rush to fix things.

    Thus if you tripped by my website it was unfortunately down from sometime Friday evening thru Saturday afternoon. Nothing trivial.

    Despite that meltdown, it’s obviously back, and fortunately it’s working better than it was prior to the meltdown. As I’m writing this, I’ve finished something of a goal that I set for myself to achieve. I’m now one step away from that.

    Musical Things

    Coming later this week is the release of Politics. The animated cover art for Apple Music is up. The lovely items that coincide with it are ready and will go active on Friday of this week. This week should also find me getting almost all the way scheduled out with the rest of the album. At least until the first week of December.

    The plan for December is to switch gears and make sure I’m helping everyone get into the Holiday Spirit!

    End of the Holiday

    As Americans may know this past weekend was a holiday weekend known as Labor Day. For me there wasn’t much for traffic and people. Kept things mellow (other than the meltdown) with making a lovely Lamb over Crushed Peas – via a recipe from Gordon Ramsey. Tasty, very tasty.

    We took a road trip yesterday. It’s something I like to do from time to time. Pick a random spot on the map and drive there. It’s an incredible way to explore the relatively near world around you and learn more about your state. On our way back I was nearly rear-ended by a truck while I was slowing down on a 2-lane road.

    I was attempting to avoid a car that was making a right-hand turn. In the rearview mirror came the grill of what appeared to be a large ass RAM or F-350. After passing the car turning, the truck slowed down a bit and backed off.

    less than 2 minutes later a Range Rover came barreling past me, via passing two cars behind the truck, the truck, and myself all in one fell swoop. The truck immediately decided to pass me as well and as he’s positioning back to the right side of the road – his flashing red/blue lights lit up. No alarm, just lights.

    Turns out that truck was some undercover UHP or something. Pulled the Range Rover over. I’m happy he didn’t rear-end me.

    Heading Home

    On the way home, I was fortune to not get caught in traffic. The opposite side of the canyon was backed up farther than I’ve ever seen. Easily 2+ miles for its 2 lanes. Then again coming out of the next town, backed up for roughly 1.5 miles.

    Rested, relaxed, and ready. That’s how the rest of this week is going. More music is coming your way.

  • 70 Weeks of New Music: Jody Whitesides Epic Re-Releases

    70 Weeks of New Music: Jody Whitesides Epic Re-Releases

    I feel like you might be finding me for the first time, all over again. Not like I ever really went away, though playing live hasn’t been on the radar for the last couple of years while I was taking care of things behind the scenes.

    TL;DR: As I’m ramping up into all of this, more things will come online and there is a lot of stuff to unpack as we go. Plus I will return to Social Media.

    The Phoenix gave rise a few days ago. Hell, if you’re reading this by browsing by, you figured something out that people on my email list still haven’t heard yet. That my first re-released song happened last Friday August 22, 2025. It was quite the time in the making and I’m still spinning some wheels to get ahead of the curve.

    Here’s the plot…

    For the foreseeable future of about 70 weeks, there will be a new song released each Friday. Unless it’s a version of Do You Want to Play, which would release on a Tuesday. For each of those songs being rereleased, there is new cover art (because these came off albums, there wasn’t individual art the first time around). As an added bonus, there are animated versions of each cover, that currently only shows up on the website and on Apple Music.

    There’s another new feature happening as well. That is, you can purchase a full quality WAV copy (i.e. 48/24, or 96/32) of the individual songs you like directly from me on my web store. Or the entire album. For either version of audio purchase, you will also get a link to the download a high quality MP3 version of it with the artwork embedded. Purchasing directly from me is the coolest thing you can do as there is no middle-man. It’s just you and I and the exchange of goods for payment. A true win win.

    While I like Apple Music and Qobuz for their audio quality, you still can’t beat downloading the full WAV (and/or MP3) from me. It’s akin to sitting in the studio with me and hearing the true depth.

    If there is enough of a cry from people, I will also make the Dolby Atmos versions available for sale, but hot damn those are extremely large files and I know of no-one actually selling them yet. Would love to set that trend, but would need to figure out the logistics of housing the files on the store.

    Are you truly here for the first time? If so, joining the Jody Army will result in me emailing you a discount codes from time to time in the future to purchase most things on the store.

    Cool items

    Speaking of which, there are official transcriptions of all the guitar parts and all the bass parts for each song. I know when I was learning to play it was a real treat when Guitar for the Practicing Musician would have transcriptions in their magazine. It was the perfect combo of standard notation and Tablature. That concept has returned. Who better than the artist who played the material to do the transcription?

    These transcriptions are done in standard notation and TAB. They are in PDF format, and the only official versions available. God I wish I had that when I was learning to play. Because with Guitar for the Practicing Musician, it was a crap shoot what they would transcribe from month to month.

    Along this journey, each week there will be a new set of items on the front page, the store front, and the bio. That’s right, there’s a new bio each week to coincide with the release du jour. It’s been a tonne of work and it’s on-going.

    At the end of this re-release path will be new music. That newer music will be releasing roughly about a year prior to it hitting streaming services. Meaning I’m looking at pressing CDs, Vinyl (for the first time) and Cassettes again. Hell, there’s a good chance I’ll do it for the re-releases as well. Nothing beats being able to open an actual tangible product and feel the weight in your hands.

    Social Contact

    Social media got you by the tits or balls? I can say from experience: it’s a good idea to take a break from it now and then. Which is essentially what I did whilst working on all of this material. As the wheels get back into motion for all of these re-releases, expect to see more posting on social media, whether you like it or not. Oh, and make sure you join BlueSky, it’s been a nice jump off the toxicity of Twitter (fuck Elon and the switch to X). Yes, that old Twitter/X account is there, however, I’ve deleted everything I ever tweeted, and it is no longer a platform that I will use.

    Another stop coming along the connective journey between you and I is email. In the not-so-distant future I will be bringing my email list back in-house. It always made my skin crawl a bit to use an external email service, but at the time I made the jump – doing it in-house and by hand wasn’t a bowl of cherries.

    Now that I have the updated server, I have found a software for doing email similar to the big boys, but without big brother watching over it, and without them telling me how I can use it. That will benefit both of us. Along with allowing me to tailor things just for you.

    If you’ve hit this point, thank you for your attention into my career. It truly means a lot to me and I look forward to seeing you on the road again.

  • The New Era of I Don’t Blame in Pop-Rock

    The New Era of I Don’t Blame in Pop-Rock

    This is a New Learning Era

    A new era is starting up. One that I didn’t think I’d approach in a million years. It’s the culmination of roughly 2 years of BTS work. I’ve mentioned it in posts and hinted at it on the podcast I co-host and produce. Today is the beginning of that journey.

    What was that BTS stuff? The long and short of it is: Remixing. Lots and lots of Remixing. I tore through my catalog—remixing first, then remastering every CD for a new era of sound.

    As a perfectionist, and sometimes its a quality about myself I dislike, I felt it was a needed detour through my past. Namely because of a circumstance of waiting on a new gig. It was a way to twiddle my thumbs and be productive at the same time.

    Learning new skills was also part of the game. Once I knew I’d be shaping other artists’ music in 360RA, I set out to master Dolby Atmos at the same time. What better way to ingest that skill than to apply it to my past catalogue and come out swinging.

    Release Plans

    I’m unleashing this music straight into the ears of people ready for the sounds coming out of my brain.. Initially I thought I’d do it all quick like by putting the whole album out one week and then the following week I’d put the Dolby Atmos version. With a 3rd version for 360RA the week after that.

    What sounded like a great plan that would take roughly 21 weeks suddenly needed a detour. Due to the shifting nature of the music business and the uncertainty of when this new gig will actually start, I decided it was better to drip it out at a much slower pace, i.e. song by song.

    The journey unfolds in singles that build toward full albums. Then, the Dolby Atmos versions hit a week later—followed in time by the 360RA experience.

    I’m making cover art for every single. With 12 songs per album, that means a ton of new designs, each shaped by the music it represents. Oh, and each one also gets an animated cover for the Apple Music service.

    Beginning with

    Today, that journey starts with song one off of album one. I Don’t Blame kicked off my very first CD, back when I released music as Amalgam. Today, the song returns—this time under my real name.

    Beyond the music itself, I’m going to be updating my bio page for each song, each album, etc. That’s a weekly change, so for the truly diehard types, you can bookmark that page and follow along. Or bookmark the site because the blog posts will also go weekly as well, though obviously they’re easier to go back thru to read and catch up with.

    Along with that, I’ve done transcriptions for every song for both guitar and bass. What better way to learn any song you fall in love with from a playing standpoint to get it from the source. Plus there will be an official piece of merch and if you’re truly excited about higher quality audio than what streaming services provide – you can purchase a high res file.

    Jump ahead of the crowd—own the music before I release it to the streaming platforms.

    Starting now, enjoy the updated version of I Don’t Blame and rock the world loud and proud! It’ll make you smile and I’ll wear a super big grin from ear to ear all because of you!

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