Somewhere in the next few days we’ll reach that point in time where, no matter what we have in progress, those of us who celebrate Christmas will start to shut down our “life as usual” mode and switch into “Christmas celebration” mode. I know that, when I get to that point, I sometimes go quite a while between on-line sessions. Thus, I thought I’d take the time right now to wish all my MySpace friends, and anyone else who may be reading this, a very merry Christmas, and a safe and healthy rest of the holiday season.
I didn’t want to just leave it at that, though, so I’d also like to offer anyone reading this a small holiday gift, in the form of a custom recording I just finished. The song is one of my all time favorite Christmas carols, “Away in a Manger”. In considering how I wanted to record it, I decided my goal would be to come as close as I could to simulating what it might be like if I were to visit you personally, playing the song for you on your own piano, assuming, of course, you had a Steinway Model D grand available… Okay, well, I didn’t have one of those, either, so I used some software that gave me the next best thing, but you know it’s the thought that counts, right?
Anyway, you can hear the recording on my MySpace profile page, and you can download it from there if you like. However, in checking what would happen if you did that, I discovered that MySpace converts the MP3 files I upload down to 96 kbps, which, frankly, sound kind of crappy. Thus, I’ve also put a free download of the same song on my SoundClick site, which allows me to put up a 128 kpbs version, and you can find the song here. I hope you will enjoy it. (January 2017 UPDATE: This recording is no longer available at the links in this 10+ year-old blog entry, but the recording is now available as the last track on my 2014 Christmas carols album, What Child is This?.)
Happy holidays to everyone!
P.S. – If you haven’t already checked out my 4-song Christmas EP, That Time of Year, I’d also like to invite you to have a free listen to the entire EP via Rhapsody or Napster. (Note: Napster requires you to register to listen, and you can listen to any song up to 3 times for free. Rhapsody doesn’t require registration, but does require that you download their free player software.) If you find you’d really like your own permanent copy of the EP, you can find the latest list of places to get it on the album page.