PRODIGAL DREAMER

Description

Prodigal Dreamer, released in 2018, marks a significant milestone in the band's later career. Featuring current member Abbie Steiling on violin, the album's intricate arrangements blend familiar rock and folk elements to create a sound reminiscent of mid-70s classics. Pavlov's Dog's latest album was featured in Eclipsed magazine's best albums of 2018 list, while decibelgeek.com called it "a late-night chill-out album with quality songs and great performances from all the musicians." It's been half a century since Pavlov's Dog burst onto the flourishing progressive rock scene of the early 1970s. Hailing from St. Louis, Missouri, their intoxicating blend of rock, classical, and folk propelled them to cult legend status. The band has experienced numerous lineup changes and internal upheavals over the years, leading to long hiatuses between album releases. But today, David Surkamp, vocalist, principal songwriter, and the last original member of Pavlov's Dog, continues to carry the banner high, accompanied by a band of accomplished musicians who do justice to the group's reputation. A bit of history: Pavlov's Dog, formed in St. Louis, was a seven-member band that quickly caught the attention of several major record labels with a series of self-produced demos (later released as The Pekin Tapes). Their debut album, Pampered Menial, released in 1974, was followed by At the Sound Of The Bell two years later. In these early days, Pavlov's Dog was distinguished by David Surkamp's unique, high-pitched, vibrato vocals—the ballad "Julia," arguably the band's most famous song, is a perfect example. Despite collaborations with the biggest rock bands of the era (Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, Journey, and many others), the band never truly broke through in the United States; their third album, "Has Anyone Here Seen Siegfried?", circulated as a bootleg before finally being officially released years later. Studio sessions for this album exacerbated tensions within the band, leading to a temporary split in 1977. In 1990, the unique project Lost In America reunited Surkamp and co-founder Doug Rayburn. But it wasn't until 2004, after the original lineup reunited for a concert celebrating their 30th anniversary, that the second chapter of Pavlov's Dog's career truly began. The band has been touring regularly ever since. Two live recordings have emerged—Live and Unleashed (2011) and House Broken (2016)—as well as two acclaimed studio projects: the triumphant return of Echo & Boo in 2010 and the more recent Prodigal Dreamer.