Holiday Music Update

OK, so it's the 14th of December and I don't have anything ready for release this year. And I don't think I will have anything in time. Is that OK? Last year by this date I had "You Know It's Christmas Time" out even though it was later than ideal. This year I started working on a version of "Jingle Bells" which is going to sound different from any version you've ever heard. But I don't think I will get it done in a timely manner. Since vocals always give me trouble and take the most time to do, I am considering doing both a vocal version and an instrumental. Then either I will officially release one or the other or both depending on how good they come out. If I cannot get a good vocal version I will focus on an instrumental version which will feature all the same backing music. Either way it's going to be an organ driven song. It's just a matter of being able to sing 2 choruses and a verse in a falsetto. There's nothing I could release quickly enough that would sound good enough by Christmas. Even just doing the instrumental version of "Jingle Bells" would require quite an amount of planning and playing. So it doesn't look like it will happen this year. But it's not like this didn't happen before. I didn't release anything for Christmas in 2017 either. When I say "release" I mean through an official avenue. That mostly means CD Baby since my last 3 releases have been through them. I don't count anything less than that as a serious release anymore. The good news is that--and you have probably seen me write this in a number of previous years--I am in the Christmas spirit and am quite focused on making 2021 the year I release not only one Christmas album but two. I don't know if that's a good idea though because mostly likely I will not have anything new to release in 2022. Yes, big plans, I know, but you have to think ahead. So perhaps I won't release 2 next year, but the question remains whether I will release an all original album and an album of covers or combine covers and originals for 2 separate albums in 2 years. Frankly, I think it's a waste to put out an entire album of original holiday songs. I suspect a good mix of originals and covers is the wise thing to do for each. That way I will have brand new songs for 2 years in a row. I guess I figured out what I will do. See how it's good to write down your thoughts? At least now I know for sure what to do and I can start picking out the traditional songs I can do my own versions of. An album of 10-12 songs will suffice, with no more than 5-6 (half) being originals. Maybe less? It just feels wasteful to put that many new songs on a new holiday album when they could all potentially serve as individual releases in the coming years. If I were making it a goal to release yearly holiday albums exclusively--because if I did choose that I would not have time for non-holiday albums--I wouldn't mind putting that many new songs on a new album considering I'd be repeating that on a yearly basis. But it's not my goal My real goal is to have a solid holiday album releaesd by October of 2021, November at the latest. If I can accomplish that I may not worry about a second release in 2022. Who knows? No sense in looking too far ahead. So allow me to just focus on what I've got planned for 2021. Of course that is all contingent upon nothing crazy happening in 2021. As long as my BR-1600 continues to function properly--which by the way I am very glad to say it has been--I can record my music. The only thing is that I have to do a bulk of the recording from now until April or May or whenever it starts getting too warm and October at which point I should be at the brink of finishing up and releasing. I will have to work fast and efficiently. Oh, if my vocals should not cooperate than I may have to resort to releasing an album of instrumentals. Or a mix of instrumentals and vocals. I'd be OK with either scenario.