Starting today, my website is changing over to a new design.
This will be the last post I write before this launching takes place. The address will be the same, but the pages, photos and design will be quite different. Provided all goes well, I should be fully new and shiny by Tuesday. Thanks for sticking with me!
(The new DVD has arrived! Pre-ordered DVD’s and contest winner’s DVD’s will be mailed Monday morning. The new site will be featuring the DVD in the store. You can be the first on your block (or blog) to have one.)
P.S. Someday I’ll write a post for budding musicians about photos and photographers and all that stuff. I’ll write about all the hard-earned wisdom I’ve gained from working with different photographers and how everyone will blame you – not the photographer – if your photos don’t look like you. For now, let’s just say that my current photos don’t look like me. In fact, when Web Guy and I were working on the new site, he saw the new photos and said, “Now, this looks like the person sitting next to me. I don’t know who that other chick is.”
Congratulations on the new site and the new photography! I love how clean and crisp it is! Finally a web site for a musician that I can read and navigate!
As for the challenge of capturing authentic photographs, it’s definitely a learning curve. The best advice I can give anyone about working with a photographer is to acknowledge that you need their skills and expertise, but don’t let that make you feel indebted to their vision. You’re the creative subject at hand and only you know how best to relay that message to the camera.
I look forward to your insights into the whole photo shoot process!
Very nice!! I miss the orange a little but the photos are great – so much more reflective of the Christine we know – and the layout is really easy to navigate. Bravo!! Can’t wait to watch the DVD……..
Wow… beautiful! 🙂
Christine –
I love the new site – it reflects *you* very well. I’m curious – do you plan to post a ‘suggested blog’ reading list? I love your suggested reading list (I’m working my way through it), and would be interested to know which blogs you recommend.
p.s. The photos ARE beautiful!
Hi Christine,
Great new look you’ve got there!
I have to say that it’s ridiculous that it could be your fault if the pictures don’t look like you.
My experience with such is from long ago before my husband and I were married. At a time when we still had more money than bills, we decided to get some photos done.
So, I went to the photographer of choice to book the appointment and saw a picture of a young hockey player in the window that reminded me of a good friend who played hockey. Wondering if it could be him, I inspected it closely and decided that it was not him, just someone who looked similar.
Sadly, the day before I was to pick our picks up – and give the photographer a large chunk of our change – I found out that the hockey player was in fact our friend. And, I confirmed that the ‘doesn’t look like me’ effect was a consistent feature of said artists work.
Consequently, our photos have never left the envelope! So, really, how could that be the fault of the subject?
Hmm… I’ve been long winded. Apparently I needed to get that out! 🙂
Christine, all good blessings and wishes of light and life for you, and your new website. It looks wonderful and I know you will continue to enjoy much success! Deep peace to you…
Christine, congrats on your new Launch and look. I love this design. So clean cut, easy to navigate and so you…
One more reason to get stuck here … haha 😀
Christine, your new design is fabulous, and your pics look great too! Congrats!
Congratulations on the new look and the great pictures. That’s what’s on the outside, and on the inside is still more and more of you. Thanks for sharing your growing with us, and helping us to look inside ourselves.
Caren – No champagne bottles. (Though WebGuy and I discussed this idea!) And you’re right about the internal change thing. I’m with you on that one!
Thanks Elaine!
Hey ChickiePam – I’ll let WebGuy know that the comments thing was running off the page and made you confused. (It’s all about you, you know!) You’ll probably get your DVD today…
Hi NancyCz, congrats on Adventure Day. We’ve discovered some amazing hikes on Adventure Day! Can’t wait to read your entry. And yes, The Real World is on the DVD. And yes, it’s the song you saw me perform in Lake Placid!
Hi Jer – Thanks! I hope the Guitar Lesson helps with the songs. (Times Three is in DADGAD. I talk a bit about DADGAD on the DVD.)
Thanks AJ!
Starbucker – I actually played “If I Can’t Have You” one night in my hotel room recently. Did you know the BeeGees wrote that? And the chords are way cool. I love learning pop song chord progressions. But I’m thinking most likely, I won’t be doing it at SobCon!
Hi Tammy (and caren again) – and thanks! (Rodney too!)
Michelle – I actuallly went deeper into your blog and found the photo of you with your family, which I liked a lot! (Those ambiguous profile photos always make me want to click and find something less ambiguous! But I know how tempting they are to use!)
Hello and thanks to you, Meryl and Kay!
backpocket – it’s not that the photos didn’t look like me on that day when I got them taken – it’s just that the “vibe” of them didn’t match who I am. it’s hard to define those sorts of things! anyway, thanks!
Hey Christine,
Love the design, I think the white just makes the site look that much cleaner.
And I just watched a video of your performance on Youtube, and I can’t believe that this is the first time you have a picture where you actually look like you.
Keep on writing
Hi Christine,
Cheers for your new “LAUNCH”…..it is great!!!
Ordering DVD was super easy….looking forward to its arrival.
I just got in from being out of town all day today, and think I was order #120…wow!!
If anyone saw a gray streak going down Old Fort this a.m. and back up it
this evening with some great CK songs blasting from within….that was me!!!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Day,
Kay
I love the new site!
Well whichever picture you use you’re very beautiful. Notice I use the most ambiguous-profile-can’t-see-what-you’re-really-looking-at picture I could find for my profile shot 🙂
Christine,
Love the new look. And I see what you mean about the photos. It’s a whole new person up there!
Regards,
Rodney.
Australia.
Beautiful, beautiful site! I love the colors…and it is much more “you”. Yay!!
Christine,
Just wanted to say how great the new site design looks! There’s something about it that’s distinctly more…connected with you. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it somehow captures the “you” I’ve come to know from your posts.
Congratulations on the new “do”!
Tammy
Happy landings Christine! The new place looks great – everything “pops” very well. I gotta get that DVD, but first I look forward to your performance at SOBCon in Chicago. Will you play “If I Can’t Have You”? 🙂
All the best.
Christine – the new site looks amazing. Very clean, but warm and inviting. Congratulations on the launch! The pics look great as well.
as a web designer myself, i will say this is a quality new site. very pleasant and easy on the eyes. and yes, the new photos are great too. i’m looking forward to the promo shot blog, that should be an interesting one. i mean, they’re all interesting of course. 🙂
i ordered the dvd, and the bonus guitar lesson one. i’ve only managed to teach myself one of your songs on guitar, Times Three. at least, i think i got it mostly right. it sounds ok enough to me when i play it. but i don’t have the best ear for figuring out songs, so this dvd should be good.
Whoo hoo! Not only did I just order the DVD — and have decided to take a sick day the day it comes to watch it — but I noticed that it has “The Real World” on it. I am hoping this is that song about the penny on the track because Kris and I LOVED that at your show in Lake Placid and can only remember one part (and therefore have written an entirely new version you really don’t ever want to hear!).
Congrats on the new look — I really like it…
Also, thank you SO much for the post on Adventure Day. Kris and I loved reading the “Have An Adventure Day” blog entry and decided that was JUST what we needed to take back our “off-time” from the rut it’s fallen into. We had our first one this past Saturday and even decided to start a blog about it (yes, yes! you’ve inspired us!). I haven’t posted more than the intro at this point, but once I get my pics back I shall update it with pics and video — what a great idea.
Thank you, Christine!
I couldn’t find what I’d written and couldn’t remember where I’d stopped….Distractions, ya know?! It seems that the script is just going off the side of my screen and won’t let me to there to see what I’ve written. So I guess I’ll just blame any typos on the computer!
Anyway, your site looks great. I’m ready for the DVD. My daughter is at the beach for a week with friends, so I have a week off, too!
Congrads on the new site. Love the look, and the pictures.
Pam
Hi Christine!
WooooWhoooo! Now web guy will soon be working on MY site! Yay! (Of course, it’s all about me!!!!
Love the new site!! (just logged in quickly and the old site has been replaced by the new one!). Hey the pics DO really look like you too!!
The colours are really cool! Thanks for all you do – you really make a difference – bless you
Sometimes those “external” changes are the end result of some internal shifts… I’m excited for you and your new website! Guess you can’t really break a champagne bottle over the bow of this launch… maybe over the corner of your desk?
impactednurse, transmogrifying is always a little intense. but if you’ll say “boink,” then perhaps it will happen smoothly!
thanks elaine. i don’t know if the DVD will play over there. I’ll call the producer and ask! (just wait before you order)
thanks meg!
jer, I’m all for great studio photographers. but the guy who did the shot on THIS site is also Faith Hill and Martina McBride’s (and many more) photographer. and i forgot to tell him not to blow out the photos like he normallly would. (I was really clear with him on Rain & Mud, and I kept wiping make up off my face – cuz his make up artist went to town. but I figured he already knew me by the next CD…but as it turns out, he had forgotten! oh well. he’s still a fantastic photographer!) I really am going to write about promo shots for musicians!
see, web guys know what they’re talking about…always listen to the web guy 🙂
that’s funny about the photos. my friends’ band needed photos for the website, posters, etc, but they didn’t hire a photographer or anything. a bunch of us just went to a few places around town, they posed, and two of us took photos. we ended up with, like, 5 good ones and a bunch of so-so ones. but at least they’re not all studioed up and looking like different people, so that’s good. and i got one good, typical “band photo” to go at the top of the web page. one of those where none of them are looking at the camera, and they’re all looking serious/introspective, ya know?
Best of luck with the launch of the new site Christine! Can’t wait to see your new ‘digs’! I’m sure your hard work and committment will result in a great site 🙂
Christine!
Happy launch day!!!!
Looking forward to doing some ‘retail therapy’ in your store on Tuesday!! Does your DVD come in Region 2 as well as Region 1? (just thought I’d ask for those of us ‘over the pond’)
Here’s to ‘new and shiny’!!
E
I have only recently stumbled upon your site from way out left field….but I have spent some time soaking up your warm writings (which paint a better picture of you than any photo captures, methinks). Hope the transmogrification goes seamlessly.