6:00 AM–June 7, 2004

Early morning notes:

Fats Kaplin and his wife Kristi Rose were in town for a week. Fats indeed played everything in sight—Pedal steel guitar, Fender non-pedal steel, mandolin, bottle-neck guitars, keyboard and button accordions, acoustic slide, and of course, fiddle. As always, he filled the studio with genius noises. We never fail to have a great time when Fats and Kristi Rose hit Tulsa. Lots of wonderful late-night dinners where the red wine gently flows. 

And then... A record wind-storm hit Tulsa, and we were without power for 4 days. That put a big hole in the recording. Even though we had power for the regular stuff at the studio, the air-conditioners didn’t work, and the equipment was in danger of overheating, so we had to leave it off most of the time. Things are back on track now. I’ve started doing my “real” vocals. Singing my heart out so-to-speak. Casey will also be in this week to play bass and sing. Bud Deal and Mike Panno are flying in from California in 2 weeks to play some horns. Very exciting.

For those of you who get ESPN2, I’m singing the theme on a show about dog-training called K9 Nation. My good friend, Scott Mathews, wrote the song and played all of the instruments (what a handy guy). We’re going to put the show “open” up on the website this week. Watch for that. Also, I re-wrote a verse from a song called “Chicken Covers” which is on The Kids Record. A wonderful character named Woody is the dog trainer host of the show. I worked in a little of his philosophy, along with the names of the 5 dog “contestants.” I really just did it for fun (and for Woody) on one of those days when the air conditioner wasn’t working. You can listen to it on the "Work In Progress" page on the Tractors home page.

Cheers,

Steve Ripley