I spent the past few days doing something I haven’t done in a long time.

I built a website.

Well, technically, I spent the past few days re-learning how to build a website.

You see, I used to build websites nearly 20 years ago. Back then, I was pretty comfortable with the whole process. I knew my way around HTML, CSS, images, layouts and all the other little pieces that went into making a website work.

Then life happened.

Technology moved on.

And apparently, the internet decided it wasn’t going to sit around waiting for me to catch up.

Twenty years ago, building a website felt a little like putting together a good old-fashioned pickup truck. You had your parts, you knew where they went, and if something didn’t work, you could usually poke around until you figured it out.

These days, building a website feels more like trying to repair a spaceship while the spaceship is already flying.

There are themes, plugins, page builders, widgets, responsive layouts, SEO settings, image optimization, mobile displays, integrations and enough settings to make a grown man reach for his coffee.

And I have reached for plenty of coffee over the last few days.

The funny thing is, once I got past the initial shock of how much things have changed, I started remembering.

The basic ideas are still there.

A website still needs to look good. It still needs to be easy to navigate. It still needs to tell people who you are, what you do and why they should stick around.

The tools are just different.

And, apparently, I have a lot of catching up to do.

I’ve spent the last several days experimenting, rebuilding things, changing things, deleting things I just built five minutes earlier, and occasionally staring at the screen wondering why something that looked perfectly fine on my computer suddenly looked like it had been designed by a committee of raccoons on a cell phone.

But that’s part of the fun.

I’ve always enjoyed learning how things work, and this has been no different.

This website is a big part of my music journey now. It’s a place where I can bring everything together in one spot. My music, my original songs, my videos, my live shows, my stories and a little bit of the man behind the guitar.

If you’ve followed me on TikTok, YouTube or Facebook, you already know that I like keeping things pretty simple.

Give me an acoustic guitar, a good country song and a place to sing it, and I’m generally a happy man.

The website doesn’t need to be complicated either.

It just needs to feel like me.

So, while I’m still knocking the dust off some of those old website-building skills, I’m having a pretty good time doing it.

It’s also a good reminder that learning something new doesn’t have an expiration date.

You might be a little rusty.

You might have to Google things you used to know.

You might accidentally spend two hours trying to figure out why one stupid button won’t move three pixels to the left.

But you can still learn.

And that’s what I’ve been doing.

So welcome to the new CharlesWSmithMusic.com.

It’s still a work in progress, just like the music man behind it.

But I’m getting there.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a website to finish and a guitar that’s been sitting there giving me that disappointed look.

And believe me, a guitar has a way of making you feel guilty when you ignore it.

Especially when there’s a country song waiting to be played.