Most of you know this, but let’s make it official…

Vicki and I are proud to announce the arrival of the new CD!!

WhistleWonder: The Carols Of Christmas contains 11 fresh arrangements of traditional carols, as well as my version of Pachelbel’s Canon (the Kicked-Up Kanon). All instrumental, with the sounds of whistles, woodwinds and keyboards arranged and performed by yours truly. 😀

Want a copy or several? Send me an email, and we’ll hook you up. Cornerstone folks – just stop by Vicki’s office or give her a call, and she’ll set you up. First Covenant Folks – let us know and we’ll deliver them to your mailbox.

CDs are $10 each. And, for those of you who haven’t gotten a copy of the first CD, Angelica’s Waltz (which is normally $15), you can purchase both CDs for $20.

We’re very VERY proud of the new CD, and have had a great response to it thus far. Let us know if you’d like one. I’ll have samples online soon…

Merry Christmas. 😀

The first song for the new CD is at about 90%. 😀 I actually got an idea on the way home from some errands, got into my studio, and a few hours later have the basic arrangement done.

It wasn’t the first one I planned, on, but the Lord decided that this one was going to be the first to get recorded. Vicki came home, heard the beginning of it, and loved it. So, one started, 11 or so to go…

YIKES-A-RONI!!!! 😀

I was a little surprized at this, since I didn’t think we’d go this direction this soon, but…

My next CD is going to be a Christmas CD. 😀 I’m in the process of submitting my CD to Hobby Lobby to be considered for play in their stores, and they asked, “do you have a Christmas CD?”

For some reason, that kind of clicked with Vicki and I, and we decided that’s the direction of the next CD. I’ve already got 30 or so songs as possibilities, and I’ll start playing around with them in a week or so. A few ideas for specific arrangements came this morning (in the shower – the place where a lot of thinking gets done), so already my head seems to be in gear for this. Lots of carols, a Gregorian chant piece, some older advent songs, and one of John Mulder’s songs are on the list – we’ll see what comes of it

We also know the title of the album (I’ve got several album titles that have been around ever since I started the last project), but I’m not going public with that just yet.

Any requests? If your favorite is on my list, that just might get it moved up… 😀

And, if you haven’t got a copy of “Angelica’s Waltz,” this would be a great time to get one… so we can pay that project off before starting the new one. 😀 Enough with the commercial… back to work.

It’s confirmed… Angelica’s Waltz is on iTunes! 😀 Wow…

If you have iTunes on your computer, this link gets you there:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=209121201
(if the link doesn’t work, search in the New Age catagory for Cal Olson and you should find me)

If not, you can check out the same samples on the CD Baby page – just click on the album cover on the right of this page to get there.

Now, can I ask a favor of those of you who have the CD………

Could you take a moment or two and leave a review? Either at CD Baby or on iTunes? Reviews help other folks decide to check out the music, and since I can’t write those myself, it would really help to have some from others who have the album… And, it really helps if those happen to be positive. So if you’re using the thing as a purple coaster, well… 😀 Reviews help generate sales, and we can use all the help we can get. Thank you SO MUCH for helping out!

It appears that a certain whistle-playin’, jewelry-makin’, storytellin’ person is coming to iTunes.

Eeeep.

I knew that CD Baby would submit the project to iTunes. But I didn’t expect it to make it onto iTunes.

Eeeep.

Within the next 30 days, we’ll either be able to confirm or deny the rumor.

Eeeep.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy…

(alright, round boy… enough with the exclamations. Get on with it…)

Sorry…

We got the “final approval” disc today – how the disc will sound, now that it’s all mastered and tweaked and whatever else they do in that process. I was instructed to listen to the entire disc, without interruption, to evaluate it. This is my last chance for input, so it’s kind of the point of no return.

And we were a little nervous. It’s a few hundred dollars to have the entire mastering process done, and we were trying to do what would make the CD the best it could be, without wasting money. So we debated a long time about spending the extra to have it mastered.

The result? Worth every penny. No question. 😀 The detail of the sound is so clean – everything in its correct “sonic space,” so you can hear the layers of sound in the songs. You can pick out the textures of the different instruments, and it all sparkles like a polished diamond. It sounds amazing – and for me to be saying that about my own music is something indeed. 😀

And, when we play it on our DVD system in the living room, the titles of the songs show up on the TV. It’s a geek thing, but it’s REALLY cool. 😀

Having heard the final result, I am very proud of it. It’s been a long trip to get here, but we’re almost done. Tentative ship date for the CD is November 14th, and when it finally gets in our hands, you’ll be able to hear the shouting all over Grand Rapids.

Wow.

To answer Jenelle’s comment on the previous post, yes! The CD should be back in time to be a great Christmas gift. (I’m blushing a bit as I write this…) Here’s where we are at:

The CD is at the plant, getting mastered and having the artwork finalized. We hopefully will see proofs of the artwork early next week, and if all continues on schedule, they should hopefully be back near the end of November – maybe even before Thanksgiving! The project manager we’re working with has been super – very helpful and lots of great communication.

One feature that was added that we didn’t even realize could be a feature: when you put the disc in a “smart” CD player, like your computer or a car player with this capability, the player will display the titles of the different tracks. 😀 Call me a geek, but I think that’s just plain cool! Or, if you import it into iTunes from the CD, it should recognize the text on the CD and load the titles for you. (I’m guessing on that last one – we’ll see when it comes back…)

Now, a question for the fine and friendly folks that read this blog…

We’re working out what to charge for the CD, and I’d like some input. We’re taking into account what it cost to make the thing, not only the actual duplication and artwork, but the hours and hours involved in the whole process – from writing the songs to recording the tracks to mixing, etc. So, the price we’re thinking of is $15 for the CD, and a price break from there when someone buys more than one.

So, what do you think? Does $15 seem fair for a 54 minute CD? I know folks who think that all music should be free, and while I can understand and appreciate that, the $3000 and-then-some dollars to make the thing has to come from somewhere. We were going back and forth between $10 and $15, keeping our costs in mind, and are leaning toward the $15, not only to pay for this project, but to make future ones possible. (including replacing a couple of computers, to make sure that the studio system doesn’t die in the middle of the next project, leaving the fate of the songs in near-jeopardy… coming that close to losing them just about freaked me out…) I already have two songs that are definite for the next disc, as well as a couple new ones that are just in the process of being written. I’m also hoping to do something special with part of the proceeds from the next CD – details forthcoming on that…

So, if you’d take the time to leave a comment, it’d give us a totally non-scientific sampling of an admittedly biased audience. 😀 Thanks! Now we sit back and wait… anxiously. 😀