Welcome to the Slow Dog's Place, Ladies and Gentlemen. Do have a look around and make yourself at home here in my humble corner of this great community of gifted artists.

On June 16th of 2009, this page reached 27,000 visitors. I have added some new icons for the dA Heros and new features from Club BBW. The Walnut Hill website has reached 80,000 visitors. Many new watchers have joined me here in the Land of the King and I have made some new friends from around the world as a result.

To all who have commented and fav'ed my work, I thank you. For those wondering how things are in Tennessee, the weather is warm and wet. Walnut Hill Productions is struggling to catch up on back logged work while I endevour to get deeper involved in the blues with MOJO as well as doing original tunes from the Power Guppies, Sub Urban Cowboys, and the Walnut Hill Orchestra.





Holy Mackerel and the Power Guppies are back in the recording studio. You know these guys. My buddy Eel-Rem, Queen of Pacifica, has mentioned them in her Journal. She is the one who looks like a mermaid with big red wings and shockers on her breasts. She sent them to Earth as data bits in a computer. Inside this box they virtually played all night. It will take weeks to get all the stuff ready to share with all those Guppy fans out there. Serious finnage...





What you are about to hear was recorded on a PC. I used a Kurzweil K-2000 synthesizer to generate each instrument, one at a time, each on its own track. The Power Guppies are thus a virtual band that is made possible by playing many instruments, one at a time, and then mixing the resulting tracks down to stereo for transmission as WMA files on the internet. The K-2000, provided on loan from Murlin's Music World in Maryville, Tennessee, did an excellent job of modelling the instruments described below. The actual session took place at MOJO Ranch. The computer enabled me to do all the production work with no assistance during the rhythm track overdubs.





I mixed down some preliminary soundtrack demos from a few of the Guppy tunes. The tracks are not complete, as they are still in the rhythm construction phase without lead instruments or vocal work.

On the first tune are an acoustic nylon string classical guitar, a synthesizer patch that is making lush strings and voices play together with the classical guitar, a concert grand piano, a vintage Hammond B3 with 147RV Leslie, an electric fretless five string bass guitar, a pair of LP congas, and a Ludwig standard jazz drum kit with extra floor toms and Turkish Zildjian cymbals.

The second cut has a Fender Rhodes Stage Piano, an upright five string bass viola, a steel string auditorium guitar, a Hammond B3 with 147RV Leslie, two trumpets, a small Ludwig rock and roll drum kit with Turkish Zildjian cymbals, and a pair of LP congas. This tune was directly inspired by the love my Rain Woman and I share and how much I am lonely for her and cannot wait to be where she is.

The third song has a honky tonk piano, bass viola, Ludwig power drum kit with Turkish Zildjian cymbals, LP congas, timbales, tamborine, a Hammond B3 with 147RV Leslie, and a muted Fender Telecaster electric guitar ran direct. This song is about good times with the Guppies and dancing in the sky. The beat will make you dance in your seat.

The fourth tune has a small grand piano, string section, Hammond B3 with 147RV Leslie, Fender Telecaster electric guitar, electric bass guitar of unknown vintage, a set of rock style Ludwig Drums with Turkish Zildjian cymbals, LP congas and timbales, a marimba, several ethnic Regelian instruments known only to the Power Guppies, a tamborine and claves.

The fifth song is writen for my lovely Rain Woman. It is called the Evening Song. This tune came to me in a dream about her and I knew it would need a big production. Horns and percussions were called in to play behind a real 12-string guitar, along with synthesized piano, bass and drums. Some of the percussion instruments are ethnic, from all over the world.





Several effects generators were plugged in to the virtual mixing desk. There was Maxx Bass on the drums, three different reverbs on several instruments, compressors on the drums and bass, spatial imaging on the cymbals, and a graphic EQ on the piano to make it brighter. If those had been actual analogue toys, the electric bill would have been enormous, not to speak of the rental fee on the gear and paying a couple engineers to set all that stuff up and make it work..





The faders were not automated, so the mixdown is a wee tad rough. What I wanted was to get this material in the can enough to share the progress of this rare recording session featuring the Power Guppies with my circle of friends here on dA and at Walnut Hill.

If you have read this far, you are ready to listen. Click one of the the song titles below, which are linked to open in Windows Media Player. The files are variable bitrate CD quality stereo audio streams that play back at an average transfer of 128KB/sec. The peaks are at around -0.3dB, so check your volume control setting before playing. If the files fail to load, simply close the player and right-click a link, choosing Save As from the fly-out menu. After saving, the file can be opened locally in the player. Enjoy!



The first song does not yet have a name and the lyrics are not written. There is room to add more tracks such as lead instruments and vocals. It is mearly a basic rhythm track to work from, a demo only.



The second song, a rollicking little blues number with a world beat, is a bit further along in developement, having a title and some of the lyrics, which will remain unposted so that when you here the Guppies belt out the words, it will be a surprise, indeed. However, the title says it all to the one I love and she knows who she is, aye.



The third number is sort of a theme song for the Guppies but it really lets the drummer, Moon Dawgie, shine with aplomb as he guides his percussionists through some intricate gyrations that make you want to bump and grind urban style. Flash Cadillac, the multi-keyboardist, holds down a groove with Holy Mackerel's bass that is unstoppable. There are awks about.



The fourth song is from the Ricky Boston APSCO Records catalogue. The lyrics were written by him in 1979 and I put the music to it that same year. The recording was eventually lost so I thought it needed redone using modern technology. Ricky and I worked together at APSCO back in 1979. He is from Santa Barbara, California. This song is about losing love and still being able to get on with life and be happy in the face of adversity.



The fifth cut started out using a real Yamaha 12-string acoustic guitar that was mic'ed. Then, a piano, bass, drums, lots of percussion and horns provided by the Kurzweil K-2000 were added. This is the music to a poem Erika wrote that sits next to her picture in my dA gallery with the same title as this song. When she hears this number, she is sure to understand many things.





Thank you for reading and listening, from all the Power Guppies, inhabitants of Regelia Prime, the Rain Woman, myself, and the fellow musician and great friend who is making all this possible to do, the MOJO Man himself, Al Owrutzky.



"We could prevent a lot of unnecessary hatred, strife, and war if everyone in the world could all just understand and have the courage to say, 'My religious beliefs/non-beliefs are my opinions/preferences. They will most likely never be proven/disproven in my lifetime. They may not be the same as yours, but they are no greater, nor lesser than yours.' This would remove a huge source of needless conflict from the world."




Thanks for all the wonderful support, my many friends from all over the planet. I can see your home fires burning from here, as displayed on the Photographic Mercator Projection Map below.





"Capitalism and religion kill the animals, individuals and society. They can kill you in a variety of ways, slow or quick. There can be no happiness or peace on this planet, no prosperity for the masses, as long as this slavery continues."