Last year around this time I recorded a unique version of "We Three Kings." It didn't take me very long and I was pretty pleased with it. It was an instrumental and that has a lot to do with my having completed it rather quickly. Vocals are a weak spot for me and not having to record take after take of lines and phrases saves a ton of time. What I am considering for this year is recording another instrumental cover. I have not written any new holiday tunes nor do I anticipate being able to write and produce one in time. In all truth though the two original songs I did make the last few years were started around this time so I could still do it. I'm not going to place a lot of emphasis on that though and just focus on getting a cover done. I am leaning towards "O Little Town of Bethlehem," as it's a song I've been wanting to do for quite some time.
In my previous post I wrote that I was considering not renewing to have my music available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. At this point it looks like I will keep it up for at least another year. Recently I was with some people and I wanted to hear my music through a new piece of gear. Not having my iPod on me it was really really convenient to be able to have them find me on Spotify and play my music from there. That was pretty nice. It was also pretty cool to have my music playing there and most people around not knowing it was me. And then seeing how surprised they were to learn it was me. I took that as some small sign that I should continue on. So I'm going to keep my music up and available for streaming and purchase.
I did not do very much musically this year. I guess that's nothing really out of the ordinary for me. Just about two songs, possibly a third coming, and a half-minute rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" which has been played a lot. It's really hard to accomplish a lot when you're working this alone and you don't always have necessary time & space to do it. I could easily become an electronic musician and put out lots more music but I do not want to go that route.
One thing I did do recently was publish a new song on Soundcloud & YouTube called "If I Told You." I had been working on this song for several years. You can look back on some of my posts from some years ago when I first talked about it. Well, it's finally done and it's one of my favorite songs. The recording quality is so good IMHO and it shows how my production skills have really improved tenfold over the years. It is so good to see yourself grow, not old, but in ability, skill, knowledge and expertise.
I still want to remix the song and just tweak it a bit here and there, but I did make a video and uploaded it to YouTube:
This was my pièce de résistance for 2016. Surely this song (in slightly remixed format) will be on my next album of originals.
In the meantime between now and the new year I will try to churn out a new recording of an old Christmas song. I know many of these tunes are tired and overdone but many people still love Christmas music as do I. I'll just come up with a unique take on it like I did with "We Three Kings."
