The Mathis Chronicles made its debut on Valentine's Day 1998. It's evolved quite a bit since those early days...my web designing skills were rudimentary, and I never wanted to use templates and programs designed to to the work for me. I wanted to see what I could do for myself. I wanted to build something that was simple, yet not cheesy, that would do Mr. Mathis proud and reflect the quality that he himself represents.

Briefly, the Mathis Chronicles features my personal essays, which allow me to try to make some sense out of the world I live in, with Mathis to help of course. My Virtual Art Gallery feature my scribbles of Mathis and his friends, like Ms. Cole to the left. The Mathis Collection is actually the records and CDs I have collected over the years, and I get to play record critic and tell you which ones suck and which ones don't! The Hear Mathis Music page was created because it's very important to support the radio stations that are brave enough to play Johnny Mathis songs, and not just the old stuff either. Influences talks about the people Mathis has said have been a big part of his musical upbringing. Although Mathis could do very well a cappella, more often than not those great sounding records are a result of wonderful production crew, and I pay homage to them in The Mathis Sound (someday I'll get it finished). The Mini-Fact Sheet has little interesting-to-me tidbits plus an overview of the past year. Books and Articles contains information about the junior-level out-of-print biography written by Tony Jasper in 1981, the out-of-print recipebook Mathis published, plus I provide a list of articles and books which feature either anectodal references to or chapters about Johnny Mathis. Leading Ladies features the women who Mathis has been paired with professionally (there are few leading men, at least not professionally, which I think is a shame). Starter Set gets the new Mathis collector off on the right foot, and In Person is my impression of a typical Johnny Mathis concert, based on the first Mathis show I ever went to back in 1989.

I've added a couple things since last year. Buy Mathis Music, a popular page with links to various vendors who sell the music of Mathis. (Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to sell anything myself, here at GeoCities.) I've also added a Back Issues section for the benefit of people who have a life and aren't always in a position to access a computer. Columbia Records' release schedule and their daily news section has been moved from the Mathis Collection to under the Links of Interest on the home page. ASCAP and BMI's search engines have been moved to the Voice of Mathis page.

These minor modifications have been very well-received. The Mathis Chronicles recorded its 10,000th hit just days before its first anniversary! The Mathis Chronicles began its third year with 25,000 hits, and with the cooperation of our host, Yahoo Geocities, I'm looking forward to even more changes, including even more reader participation (aren't I nice??), a possible guestbook, and biweekly editions.