Here’s a link to my new “Artist Bio” page on the M-Audio website:

http://www.m-audio.com/artists/en_us/AndyHarrison.html

I’ve been using M-Audio gear for years, as you now know after reading that wonderful webpage, and they graciously decided to add me to their online roster of artists. It’s kinda crazy, reading it actually makes me feel like I’ve done something!

Andy

On Wednesday, April 11th, I woke up early to drive down to Nashville from Columbus to do some work in Sheryl’s studio and pick up some of my gear that I had left down there last month. The night before I was up late doing my taxes and happened to catch an old episode of the Twilight Zone. The episode was set in the old west and was the story of the town drunk, Rummy, who was saved from certain death-by-duel by the roving potion peddler, Henry Fate. About halfway through Kentucky I got off I-65 at exit 86 near Paducah to get a quick cheeseburger and some fries. When I was getting back on the interstate I saw a small Beagle trying to get across the on ramp in front of me. As a past Beagle owner I’m a sucker for the breed, but I haven’t been able to get another dog because my work keeps me away from home too much and Aly has been ridiculously busy being a law student at Capital University.

This particular morning was pretty cold and I remember thinking that something wasn’t right with a dog that small being near the on-ramp to a freeway. I pulled over and tried to get close enough to the dog to see if he had a collar and to see if he was alright, an exercise he was having none of. It took me a whole biggie-size order of McDonald’s fries to get him to stop running away–he obviously didn’t trust anyone or anything but he sure was hungry. Eventually he hunkered down at the edge of a thicket and let me get close enough to grab him. He was in pretty rough shape, there were about 10 ticks that I could see (and many more that I couldn’t!) and he had what looked like a wound with a pretty good infection behind his left ear. He was really skinny and looked like he’d been outside on his own for a while. There was no collar or tags and there was a bunch of ripped up fast-food trash in the small meadow beside the on-ramp which was, I think, his main source of food lately. He was a male and looked to be no more than a year old. I put him in the warm car and got back on the road to Nashville, but not before I took a picture of him with my phone and sent it to Aly.

I called Aly right away and she was less than impressed with my rescue, but to her credit she saw how cute he was and knew right away that she was screwed. She loved Elvis, our old Beagle, as much as I did but she didn’t love the added responsibility of a dog when I was on the road then, and she especially didn’t want that burden now while she’s busy working her ass off in law school. (I think she also wasn’t exactly excited to relive the hell that was living with me when Elvis died!) I got to Nashville a little late and, along with my new friend Catherine who was watching the house, took the dog to Sheryl’s vet near Franklin (thanks for the hook up Chuck…) He gave the dog a much-needed medicated bath, cleaned up his infected ear, gave him some tests and gave me some antibiotics and other medicine for his infection and the obvious infestation of worms. He thought that the dog was in pretty good shape considering his circumstances, but cautioned me to keep him away from Sheryl’s dogs just in case he had something that he couldn’t detect—a warning that I didn’t need and definitely heeded!

I finished up my work at the studio that night and the next morning and packed up all of my crap and Rummy, the dog, that’s his name now, and headed home. I figured that Rummy was as good a name as any because he too was saved by fate. At first I wasn’t sure that I would–or could–keep him, I just knew that I couldn’t leave him out there by the freeway. I figured that one of my friends could be persuaded to take him if it didn’t work out but now I think he’s here to stay. Our cats are still not too sure, Sydney keeps beating the crap out of him and scaring him to death—he’s a little timid and scared of his own shadow. I don’t think he won too many fights out there in the big, bad world. Overall though I think he’s going to come around and be a good, happy dog.

Now I have to go look over and sign the contract that Aly is drawing up for me in exchange for letting Rummy stay–beware of loving lawyers! I think I’ll have a lot less free time here real soon!

Here’s some more pics of Rummy:

This morning at 1:20 AM my good friend and the biggest German Shepherd I’ve ever known, Blocker, passed away. Hopefully he gets to hang with his other good friend, Elvis, quite a bit. Here’s a link to his blog maintained by his owner and one of my oldest friends, Tom Boyer:

He will truly be sorely missed…

Andy

Last week I ordered parts for and started building an amp attenuator designed by Trainwreck Circuits guru Ken Fischer. It’s called an Airbrake and they are currently produced by Dr. Z under license from Trainwreck. Here’s a pic of my build so far:

The idea for this came from my good friend and fellow Sheryl Crow tech, Andy Wolf. He built one last month which sounded so good that it was immediately nabbed by his guy Peter Stroud (–that happens sometimes.) Andy emailed me the layout and off I went. I like the look of the big, old knobs, it kinda makes it look like some 1950’s geiger counter.

Hey all, welcome to my new Weblog.  I will be periodically posting tidbits of news and fun things going on in my life right here on this very page!