Leo Susana - Perro Muerto en la calle (19/365)

19/365 "Perro Muerto en la Calle" is a tune I wrote in the mid 90's and have been playing live with most of my bands ever since but have never actually put on an album. When I first heard “Reina Mia” by Juan Luis Guerra I really loved the guitar style. On the albums that followed (Bachata Rosa, Areito and Fogarate) it was inspirational, although on some songs it seemed to be buried in the mix.
Anyway, these albums got me learning new stuff and exploring African guitar. I was especially intrigued by Diblo Dibala, the guitar player who played on some of the tracks and whose “Kimia Eve” Juan Luis turned into one of his biggest hits, El Costo de la Vida. I bought one of Diblo’s albums and tried to decipher what the heck he was doing. I din’t get close, but that led to the type of playing I do on this tracks, arpeggiating triads over the fingerboard rhythmically.

The song title literally means “Dead Dog on the Street” and I actually wrote part of it while driving eastward from Santo Domingo. As we were passing Boca Chica, there was a dead dog on the road and the title just stuck in my head and I began to sing something or other. Think at first I wanted it to be a metal tune. Eventually it became this African/Latin type thing.

I first tried to play it on the Les Paul today, plugged through pedals straight to the mix (with DI) but was having trouble playing the arpeggios up on the neck. I finally gave up and recorded with the Ibanez which doesn’t even go high enough so I played the second set of arpeggios an octave lower (which I do anyway, but then move up if the guitar allows it.

Thanks for listening.

19/365 Perro Muerto en la Calle - Leo Susana