Jody Whitesides

Category: News

Christmas Brought Me You: Memories, Music, and Creative Growth

Getting around to the Christmas spirit of 2025. What a wild and crazy year it’s been. Lots of changes here in JodyLand and at my web domain. Of course in the spirit of the holidays it’s been four weeks of holiday oriented music.

It was an undertaking years ago to think thru a Christmas Past, Present and Future concept musically speaking. I had this notion that I had to be the one to do it, since no-one had musically done it before. Recording one album in a year is an undertaking, at least it was prior to AI.

Add two more albums on top of that and it became a mad dash to get it done under the wire. In fact it released right before Christmas in 2006. In hindsight it would have been better hold off the release and done a bit more work on it for 2007.

Fast forward to 2021 for a Pickleball themed Christmas party. I was on a court with friends and one friend in particular put Christmas Future on. As I was dinking around in the game, I said to myself: Self! It’s time to do it again.

I put on the engineer’s baseball cap, dug out the files, and jumped into revamping the mix, added some extra holiday percussion, and dropped it again in 2022. It didn’t stop with Christmas Brought Me You, it continued with the entire 3 album release.

The crafty artistic side of me delved into a way to make each album stand slightly apart from the 2 others in the trilogy. Not just via the songs chosen, but by how they got remixed. Which meant using different recording consoles based on the era the music represented.

This particular song has been the theme to the longest running Advent Calendar Vlog, Grant’s Advent Calendar. It’s created a special crowd thanks to Grant! Always look forward to his original takes on opening his Advent Calendar. Which has spawned copy-cats.

Stay tuned for next week’s recap of 2025, until then enjoy your Christmas, you holiday, your whatever-you-do time to be with loved ones.

2025-12-23
High Quality Christmas Music Downloads for the Holiday Season

What a wild week. There’s been some new versions of Christmas music added to my web store. There’s been a technical update to the fan email system. There’s been a big update to the fan rewards system. The holidays are bringing some additional gifts to close out the year and it’s looking mighty fine!

Last week it was the addition of the studio WAV files of Christmas Past. Meaning you can now obtain the highest quality versions of the Christmas classics that we all know and love. Full on depth and clarity that you won’t find on any streaming service. There’s also a nifty gift coming in the next 365 days in regard to this Christmas music.

For this week it’s Christmas Present. It’s a limited time offer to purchase the music in the next week. After Christmas it will come down off the web store and will be gone for the foreseeable future. Which means – get it now while you can!

There’s been a bit of a hiccup with the fan email system. It hasn’t been doing the automated releases just yet. Meaning I’ve had to manually get them out which is why they’ve been coming out in the afternoons and not in the morning. I believe I’ve solved the issue and they should be hitting inboxes in the morning. If you update your account preferences, you can have it email you as per your time zone as well.

The super big news of the week, which will get an official email tomorrow is – the first streaming platform that can be connected to my fan rewards system is now live. There may be a hiccup or two, but so far it appears to be working. If you’re on my email list, you’ll get an email tomorrow and I’ll encourage you to try it out.

As for the holidays, it’s been crazy slow start to the winter season. Right now, the ski resort that I live near is open (and I use that term very loosely) but we literally have no snow. It’s finally gotten a little chilly out, but storms have been avoiding the area like the plague. That hasn’t stopped me from watching cheesy Hallmark style Christmas films, and enjoying getting gifts for loved ones. Whether we have snow or not, it will be a pared back but lovely holiday.

Stay tuned…

2025-12-16
How Film Inspiration and Tech Breakthroughs Help My Latest Christmas Release

How often do you watch a particular movie? How often do you listen to a song or album (do you even listen to albums)? How much effort do you put in to anything that you do in life? What is the expected result? Is it like Christmas when you experience the end result?

These are some of the things that are pulsing through my head right now. Mainly due to how much effort I’ve been pouring into things for the last several weeks. Beginning with some technical shit that is meant to make your experience on this site better. The last step took two weeks of intense testing to make it work.

Before I get to the technical shit, I’m gonna write that I’ve gone off the deep end with the movie F1 starring Brad Pitt. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a massive movie buff. Often I’m dropping weird movie quotes and references. While I don’t do drugs, I do often over imbibe on movies I enjoy. Right now – that is F1. I’ve watched the damn thing roughly 10 times in the last two weeks.

Director Joseph Kosinski has another amazing movie under his belt. The true thanks has to go to Ehren Kruger for a very clever script. While I don’t know how many of the lines are ad libbed, I will say there is a lot of fun and well-timed dialogue that really brings each character to life. F1 is just the backdrop to a story about loving what you do and ignoring all the noise beyond that love.

I apply that same mentality to music. Especially to the music I create. But also to the focus I place on listening to music created by others. It requires a great amount of concentration to really bring music to life.

The other day my significant other and I were chatting. I had intimated that I hold the Steve Jobs attitude to how I approach doing things. Meaning, if something isn’t seen front of face, it still requires perfection. This comes from the story of how Steve Jobs was ultimately concerned about how the inside of his computers had to look and feel just as perfect as the outside of those computers.

I apply this theory to music, sports, and all other things that I do. I find that if I don’t put in the effort it ends up meaning nothing to me and I derive no pleasure from the end result.

Often it’s based not only on the quality of the tools one has at their disposal, but their ability to self assess what they are doing.

Such is the technical issue I was dealing with for the last two weeks. It relates to my website, my email platform and of course how it operates. Without giving away the goods, I’ll say this. It’s something behind the scenes, not forward facing. What does it do? It’s keeps things smoother for you and improves things behind the scenes for me.

To that end, this is the re-release part 2 of a slew of Christmas music. Christmas Past. All you need to know is that it’s classic Christmas songs that I’ve put my take on. The re-release in and of itself is a new mix, improved arrangements, and new mastering.

All that adds up to an audio experience that I’m happier about. That will sound better to you. And if I shall be so bold, will get yet another experience upgrade next year.

For now, I’m wishing you and yours a very special holiday time. May it be filled with friends, family and awesome experiences.

Stay Tuned

2025-12-09

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