Jody Whitesides

Category: News

  • With You Release – An Amazing Remix of Creativity and Sound

    With You Release – An Amazing Remix of Creativity and Sound

    The late nights never seem so bad. Suddenly I’m having late nights again and it’s not exactly by choice. It’s a drive that has lit back up and there’s a vibe of forward movement that has been missing for about 3 years. And it’s a journey that I’m on …With You.

    As I’m getting the technical side of things to finally settle down a little bit, it’s always hard when a little problem rears up with it. Last night was just such a thing. Then again this morning it had another mishap, that has since taken care of itself. It’s causing me to look into another bit of gear to hopefully solve the issue.

    There’s a new fire under my feet with all this tech improvement. It’s getting the musical juices going as well. This week I’ll be finishing up a version of a wedding song for a friend, where I’m doing the music and my friend Claude J Woods of Earth, Wind and Fire is doing the vocals (I may sing on it as well). It’s for a private affair and I’m happy to see it come together.

    There’s another slight change that you’re not likely to notice, so I’ll point it out. If you’re new to my musical world, and you want to sign up for my email list – you currently are unable to. I’m hoping to have that rectified by next week. I’ve dumped the 3rd party list server that I was using. It’s become long in the tooth, isn’t worth the money it’s costing and won’t be able to do some of the things I’m working on, to make it more enjoyable for you.

    I’ll keep it at that until I have it up and running.

    This week will see the release of …With You. A song that is a real amalgam of things. Different time signatures, different arrangement value and almost a backward feel to the type of music that was going on when the album originally came out. Now it feels more at home in today’s musical landscape.

    ...With You single cover art.

    I’m happier with this mix due to some of the effects that are now available that I didn’t have in the late 90s. Yeah, it’s that old. It’s not rerecorded, just remixed and remastered.

    Remember I’m on this journey …With You and I want you to feel included. Thus, if you’re not already part of the Jody Army, do return to my domain in the next two weeks and join the ranks. Your data will only be between you and I and I have another trick coming up that sleeve that will make being a part of the army very worth while.

    Until next week, remember to keep you ear to the grindstone, and float along in the Breezes.

  • Breezes: Behind the Scenes of a New Instrumental Remix Release

    Breezes: Behind the Scenes of a New Instrumental Remix Release

    You’ll notice a skip if you go back to the last post and this post. If you’ve been following things for the last several months, then you may have also noticed something that hasn’t been seen on my domain for decades. Beyond that, other BTS improvements are getting made. Oh, and there will be newly remixed music this week called Breezes.

    The simple thing about last week is, it wasn’t a breeze. On September 5th a very unfortunate thing happened to the server. It created a situation that lead to the server essentially going down. I claim some of that issue as “my bad” for not knowing the best way to alleviate the problem.

    Chalk it up to a lack of experience with the situation. Pure and simple. The fortunate thing is, I did not lose any data which was my biggest fear. I probably have over 15 years or more of blog posts that I thought would be gone. The rest of it is easy to rebuild if ever there was such a loss.

    Sadly it took a week to get my email server and website back up with a lot of careful step to make sure the data did not get lost. But it did mean that my website was down and sadly I had no means to write an update. C’est la vie.

    The great thing, I’ve added another machine into the situation. Plus I’ve ordered more power supplies to make sure each machine will have it’s best processing ability at all times.

    Along with that there should be another nice announcement for next week’s post. But I’m not quite there yet.

    This week it’s a journey into doing a new version of a song a friend of mine wrote for people who are getting married. She’s got a friend who is getting married in a few weeks and he is heavily into Earth, Wind and Fire. So I’ve been hired to re-record the song in the style of Earth, Wind and Fire. Easy enough.

    But the linchpin to this is that a friend of mine who I’ve written a few cool songs with, happens to be one of the current singers for Earth, Wind and Fire and he’s agreed to sing it. Which put her over the moon.

    In the mean time, as my week progresses this week’s release is called Breezes. It’s an instrumental song. It features some massive stretches for chord shapes and a whole lot of intertwining guitar lines that feel like they are set off in the wind. Including a middle section that is reminiscent of a storm. The drums definitely have a very airy quality with all the amazing hi-hat and cymbal work. It’s all in there.

    Stay tuned, there’s more to come.

  • 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.

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