The contemporary band, The Progressive Shamanists, which included percussionist Rob Prigge, bassist Keith Swanson, and guitarist Greg Pichler first met at Pichler's Dune Road studio at 20 Dune Road, Bethany Beach, Delaware on the weekend, starting Friday, December 2, 1983. During that weekend the group recorded the principal tracks to four songs on a Tascam 22-4, reel-to-reel tape deck, including Lonely Girl (R Kowtko), Those Words (GE Pichler), Progress (K Swanson), and You Need All My Love (Cobra Eyes) (R Kowtko). In fact, the three musicians performed two separate versions of the song, Lonely Girl (R Kowtko). The Dune Road studio was ideal in the Winter season as the property was located in a Summer resort area and as a result none of the noise from the percussion instruments was in earshot of any neighbors. No one was present in the general vacinity.

Over the course of the weeks leading up to the weekend, starting friday, December 2, 1983 Pichler rewrote the lyrics to Rob Kowtko's original song, Cobra Eyes, and the group renamed it, You Need All My Love, which in fact was the principal phrase, appearing in the first verse of the song. Pichler also added a bridge to the song, calling the part, Nowhere To Hide. Pichler's changes to Kowtoko's song largely drew positive feedback from both the other musicians who attended the sessions as well as their immediate peers, who listened to both the prior version of Cobra Eyes recorded over the weekend session, starting Friday, April 25, 1983 and the final product.

Keyboardist and composer, Rob Kowtko, did not participate in any of the recorded material.

Later, over the course of the weekend, starting January 6, 1984 Keith Swanson, Tom Rocco, and Greg Pichler met again at the Dune Road studio in Bethany Beach to continue building on the material the group of musicians set down over the course of the weekend session, starting December 2, 1983.

Still Later, over the course of the weekend, starting Friday, March 20, 1984 Rob Prigge, Keith Swanson, and Greg Pichler, met at Pichler's residence in Fairfax, Virginia, aptly named the Willow Crescent Drive Studio, to principally work on the vocal parts to the original song, Progress.

The group elected to elevate Pichler as the lead singer in all three compositions, leaving the other members the responsibility of backing vocals.

Guitarist, Greg Pichler, recorded three of the remaining tracks on the tapes that fill out the collection, including Live Shamanistic Dreams (D Axelrod), Mirror Eyes (R Kowtko) and Dawn Of Time (D Axelrod) at his private studio at the apartment complex at 3315 willow Crescent Drive, Fairfax, Virginia.

Designs on Solicitation of the Various Record Labels

It was at this time that Swanson and Pichler began discussions on soliciting their material to the various record labels. Pichler purchase forty low quality cassette tapes for the purpose of burning the resulting material onto cassette tape and distributing the tapes to the various record labels in North America.

Swanson and Pichler discussed the roles and responsibilities of the various group members going forward. Swanson and Pichler regarded Prigge's talent on the percussion to be of sufficient quality to invite him as a member of the group, The Progressive Shamanists, moving forward. However, Prigge was enrolled in ROTC at Lehigh University, which meant Prigge would be the property of the United States Army for four years after graduating from university. So, in effect, the group would have to back fill Prigge for at a minimum the period in which he served out his obligation to the US military.

Swanson and Pichler did not regarded Kowtko's talents on the keyboard to be of sufficient quality to front him as keyboardist on any material presented to the various record labels. However, both Swanson and Pichler did strongly feel that Kowtko's musical creativity was too valuable an asset to entirely dispose of. So, Swanson and Pichler agreed to find a role for Kowtko in the background as a song writer slash composer for the group, The Progressive Shamanists, moving forward.

Swanson and Pichler also did not regarded Pichler's talents on the guitar to be of sufficient quality to front him as having any role other than a rhythm guitarist. So, Swanson and Pichler agreed to invite Tom Rocco as the lead guitarist of the group moving forward.

Unfortunately, after the demo material was produced Swanson and Pichler never took the next step of acquiring a marketing list of record labels and the material was never sent to anyone of importance for consideration of a record contract.

It was also at this time that Swanson and Pichler elected to change the name of the group from The Phoenix to the Progressive Shamanists. The purpose of the name change was to adopt what was thought to be a more contemporaneous name of a music band. The name draws from Swanson's song, Progress, as well as Axelrod's song, Live Shamanistic Dreams. Hence Swanson and Pichler were drawing inspiration from Kowtko's legacy of material, even if the song was not written by him.

Music Contributions

The following contributions were applied to the music video:

• Rob Prigge: percussion
• Keith Swanson: bass guitar, keyboard
• Tom Rocco: guitar, keyboard, vocals
• Edward Rosenthal: guitar
• Greg Pichler: guitar, vocals

Credits

The YouTube video of the collection includes a still photo image of Annie McManus-Tremaine taken in September, 1987.

Epilog

The studio album collection, Dune Road, would be the last collection Prigge, Swanson and Pichler would cut together as a group. There were a number of recording sessions after Dune Road, including one at the studio in Dune Road in 1987 and two at the Yarling Court studio in Fall Church, Virginia in 1986. However, none of this later work would eclipse what the group accomplished on the Dune Road studio album collection.

Percussionist, Robert Prigge, went on the form the band, Diamondback in 1992. Diamondback is reportedly Hawaii’s only Southern Rock band. Rob Prigge had a long career with State Farms, headquartered in Bloomington, IL. In 2025 Prigge retired from State Farm and now lives with his spouse, Grace, in Albany, Oregon.

Bassist, Keith Swanson, a.k.a., Swanny, went on the form the band, Barley Juice with fellow musician, Kyf Brewer, in 1998. Swanson parted company with the band in 2019 after twenty years of service. Swanson lives with his spouse in Quackerton, Pennsylvania. Swanson had a long career as a employee of the United State Postal Service.

Keyboardist, Rob Kowtko, went on the form the band, Lake Scene, which plays cover songs in and around Greentown, Pennsylvania. Kowtko is now retired and lives with his wife, Grace, in Warrenton, Pennsylvania. The couple spends most of their leisure time at their lake front property near Tanglewood, Pennsylvania.

Remastering

As of Friday, August 15, 2025 the group remastered the material in the latest collection of MP3 files and YouTube videos.

Song List

The list of songs from the album that resulted from the work over the three weekend sessions includes:

1. 00:00:02 (Track 1) Progress (K Swanson)
2. 00:04:25 (Track 2) You Need All My Love // Nowhere To Hide (R Kowtko, GE Pichler)
3. 00:09:03 (Track 3) Lonely Girl (R Kowtko)
4. 00:12:46 (Track 4) Those Words (GE Pichler)
5. 00:18:10 (Track 5) Live Shamanistic Dreams (D Axelrod)
6. 00:25:09 (Track 6) Mirror Eyes (R Kowtko)
7. 00:30:40 (Track 7) Dawn Of Time (D Axelrod)
8. 00:34:11 (Track 8) Lonely Girl, Dune Road Studio Version (R Kowtko)
9. 00:37:47 (Track 9) Live Shamanistic Dreams, Dune Road Studio Version (D Axelrod)
10. 00:44:37 (Track 10) Dawn Of Time, Dune Road Studio Version (D Axelrod)

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