{"id":1858,"date":"2026-08-13T13:22:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T17:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chipmccainmusic.com\/?p=1858"},"modified":"2026-08-13T13:23:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T17:23:04","slug":"welcome-to-the-new-and-improved-chip-mccain-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chipmccainmusic.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/13\/welcome-to-the-new-and-improved-chip-mccain-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the new and improved Chip McCain Music!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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An All-New Look, an All-New Feel\u2026 and One Slightly Painful Lesson in Backups<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the new and improved Chip McCain Music!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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So, what do you do when you’ve allowed your website to sit around long enough to become stale, neglected, and badly in need of a fresh coat of paint?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, if you’re me, you throw the whole damn thing out with the old bath water and start over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that’s exactly what I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ChipMcCainMusic.com has been rebuilt from the ground up<\/strong>, with an entirely new look, a new feel, better organization, and hopefully a little more personality than the old place had toward the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Think of it as tearing down the old club, rebuilding the stage, replacing the questionable wiring, cleaning out the dressing room, and reopening under new management.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Except the management is still me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So temper your expectations accordingly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Same Musician. New Stage.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The good news is that I really like where the new site is headed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s cleaner, easier to get around, and gives me a much better place to keep everything updated\u2014including show information, my song list, equipment, reviews, photos, and whatever else I decide belongs here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More importantly, I’m hoping the rebuild will get me back into the habit of keeping Music Notes<\/strong> alive and kicking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s the blog section of the site, where I’ll be posting upcoming show announcements, music-industry odds and ends, updates about what’s happening around the website, and various other things that wander through my head and somehow make it past quality control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there’s The Lounge<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s where quality control officially clocks out for the evening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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And Now for the Slightly Embarrassing Part\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Remember a minute ago when I said I started over?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean I started over.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As in gone.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deleted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old website, meet large digital trash can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now, anyone who has spent more than about fifteen minutes around computers knows there is one sacred commandment before doing something like that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BACK UP YOUR STUFF.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And technically, I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, instead of making a nice fresh backup about five minutes before blowing the place up, I confidently relied on the backup I already had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From months earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More like a couple of years earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turns out, quite a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhere along the way I had apparently forgotten the password to the archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, after years of working with computers, I managed to lock myself out of my own backup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d like to tell you there was some complicated technical explanation involving corrupted databases, server failures, international hackers, solar flares, or Russian intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I forgot the damn password.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not exactly one of the brighter moments of my computing career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fortunately, I Didn’t Lose Everything<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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