''Prodigal Dreamer'' is the seventh studio album by American

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

/ AOR band

Pavlov's Dog Classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) is a behavioral procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food) is paired with a previously neutral stimulus (e.g. a triangle). It also refers to the learni ...

, released in 2018. According to the band's long-standing leader David Surkamp most of the album's songs were newly composed at the time, but "Paris" existed since 1977 and "Thrill of it All" was written "''maybe a couple of years later''". Both songs are credited to Surkamp and former Pavlov's Dog member Douglas Rayburn, who passed away in 2012. "Hard Times" is a song Surkamp wrote during

Donald Trump's inauguration The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States marked the commencement of Donald Trump's term as president and Mike Pence as vice president. An estimated 300,000 to 600,000 people attended the public ceremony hel ...

, as he felt depressed by the circumstance. "Crying Forever" was written by Surkamp for

Savoy Brown Savoy Brown (originally Savoy Brown Blues Band) were an English blues rock band formed in Battersea, south west London, in 1965. Part of the late 1960s blues rock movement, Savoy Brown primarily achieved success in the United States, where they ...

, included in their 2007 studio album ''Steel''. Pavlov's Dog used to play the song live in concerts before the release of their own studio version with ''Prodigal Dreamer'', as indicated by its inclusion in their 2016 live album '' House Broken''. A live version of "Shaking me Down" is also part of that album. Nathan Jatcko, then member of the band since 2015, recorded some keyboard parts on an

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

during the album's sessions, with the intention to re-record them on a

grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

in their final form. However, Jatcko committed suicide on January 17, 2018 and was replaced by Mark Maher who completed the recordings. ''Prodigal Dreamer'' is dedicated to Jatcko's memory. The album's artwork consists of various black and white snippets from Edwin Landseer's paintings ''A Jack in Office'' and ''Low Life''. Pavlov's Dog also based the cover of their debut album ''

Pampered Menial ''Pampered Menial'' is the debut album by American progressive rock/ AOR band Pavlov's Dog, released in 1975. The album features a line-up comprising David Surkamp, Steve Scorfina, Mike Safron, Rick Stockton, David Hamilton, Doug Rayburn and Si ...

'' on ''Low Life''. Both paintings represent the same overweight dog, a mainstay of the band's image through the years. In support of the album Pavlov's Dog set out the ''Prodigal Dreamer Tour 2019'', playing nine dates in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

from November 11 to November 23, 2019.

Track listing

All tracks credited to David Surkamp, except where noted.

Personnel

Pavlov's Dog (in album liner notes order) *David Surkamp: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar *Sara Surkamp: vocals, acoustic guitar *Abbie Hainz-Steiling: violin *Rick Steiling: bass guitar *Manfred Ploetz: drums *Mark Maher:

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

David Malachowski David Frank Malachowski (January 16, 1955 – September 29, 2022) was an American guitarist, producer, composer, singer, musical director and journalist who resided in Manhattan, New York. He had been a member of Reckless (1978–1981), The Gre ...

: electric guitar Guest Musicians (in alphabetical order) *Paul Hennerich: trumpet *Robert Marstiller:

auxiliary percussion The percussion section is one of the main divisions of the orchestra and the concert band. It includes most percussion instruments and all unpitched instruments. The percussion section is itself divided into three subsections: * Pitched percus ...

, backing vocals *Saylor Surkamp: backing vocals *Hollie Woods: backing vocals Production *Paul Hennerich:

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

*David Surkamp: producer *Sara Surkamp: producer *Robert Marstiller: assistant recording engineer *Aaron Kinney: assistant recording engineer *David MacRunnel: assistant recording engineer *Bill Schulenburg:

mastering engineer A mastering engineer is a person skilled in the practice of taking audio (typically musical content) that has been previously mixed in either the analog or digital domain as mono, stereo, or multichannel formats and preparing it for use in distr ...

Artwork *All images used are snippets from Edwin Landseer's paintings ''A Jack in Office'' and ''Low Life''

References

{{Authority control 2018 albums Pavlov's Dog (band) albums