The Progressive Shamanists, including Rob Prigge, Keith Swanson, Rob Kowtko and Greg Pichler, produced a collection over the course of seeral weekends at different properties, including the Tanglewood Studio, Swanson's residence in Staten Island, New York, and Prigge's residence in Princeton, New Jersey. This was the first collection that was produced from multiple weekend sessions at various studio locations.
The Progressive Shamanists, including Rob Prigge, Keith Swanson, Rob Kowtko and Greg Pichler, first met at the studio in Tanglewood, Pennsylvania on the weekend, starting Friday, July 15, 1983. During that weekend the group recorded eight songs on the Tascam 22-4, 4-track, reel-to-reel, tape recorder.
Guitarist, Tom Rocco, also attended the session at the Tanglewood studio. Rocco contributed a lead guitar part on the song, Candy Puerto Rican Girl. Rocco also sang backing vocals on the same song.
Later, over the course of the Columbus Day weekend, starting Friday, October 7, 1983 Greg Pichler traveled to Staten Island to record further contributions from Keith Swanson and Tom Rocco at Swanson's place of residence in Staten Island, New York. Later, that same weekend Pichler traveled down the highway to Princeton, New Jersey where he recorded additional percussion contributions from Rob Prigge at Prigge's place of residence.
The group worked entirely on original music over the course of the weekend session and refrained from performing any cover songs by other artists.
The group largely focused on new material and did not produce new reditions of any songs the group had previously recorded with the exception of the song, KGB, which Kowtko wrote and first recorded in 1980 or thereabouts.
Swanson introduced two of his original songs to the group, including the song entitled, Big Red Sun and the song entitled, Caroline. Kowtko introduced introduced two of his new, original songs to the group , including the song entitled, Candy Puerto Rican Girl and the song entitled, Lost Souls. Pichler introduced three original songs he wrote in advance of the weekend session to the group, including the song entitled, The Come On Girls, the song entitled, The Celebrity, and the song, entitled, The Primative Self.
The group's more respectable renditions include Big Red Sun (K Swanson), Candy Puerto Rican Girl (R Kowtko), Caroline (K Swanson), The Come On Girls (GE Pichler), and The Celebrity (GE Pichler).
The group elected to reserve much of the lead vocals to the composer of the respective songs with the exception of Candy Puerto Rican Girl. Swanson contributed the lead vocal part on his original songs, Big Red Sun and Caroline. Kowtko contributed the lead vocal part on his original song, KGB and Lost Souls. Pichler contributed the lead vocal part on The Come On Girls, The Celebrity and The Primative Self. Pichler also contributed the lead vocal part to Kowtko's original song, Candy Puerto Rican Girl.
The video includes still photo images of all the members of the group.
Personality Conflict and In Fighting Amongst Group Members
As productive as the weekend session was and as impressive as the final product was the weekend session was also tainted with personal disagreements over arrangements and the quality of musical contributions. On occasion tempers flared up while members laided down their respective tracks. At one point a member of the group tossed a stool he happened to be sitting on through a sliding, screen door, in frustration over the stool having a number of loose screws holding it together. The stool would creak while the member was busy, laying down a part. Ultimately, the member trashed the stool and ripped away the screen on one of property's sliding, screen doors.
Music Contributions
The following contributions were applied to the music video:
- Rob Prigge: percussion
- Keith Swanson: bass guitar
- Rob Kowtko: keyboards
- Tom Rocco: guitar, Casio keyboard, vocals
- Edward Rosenthal: guitar
- Greg Pichler: guitar, vocals
Rob Prigge
Remastering
As of Sunday, August 10, 2025 the group remastered the material in the latest collection of MP3 files and YouTube videos.
List of Tracks
The list of tracks from the albumthat resulted from the work over the weekend includes:
- 00:00:02 (Track 1) Candy Puerto Rican Girl (R Kowtko)
- 00:03:42 (Track 2) Big Red Sun (K Swanson)
- 00:07:17 (Track 3) KGB (K Swanson)
- 00:10:22 (Track 4) Lost Souls (R Kowtko)
- 00:13:55 (Track 5) The Come On Girls (GE Pichler)
- 00:17:30 (Track 6) Caroline (K Swanson)
- 00:21:40 (Track 7) Houston Town (Dan Monaco)
- 00:25:49 (Track 8) The Celebrity (GE Pichler)
- 00:29:49 (Track 9) Primative Self (GE Pichler)
- 00:33:076 (Track 10) Big Red Sun, The Staten Island Version (K Swanson)
- 00:37:09 (Track 11) Those Words (GE Pichler)
more information
The second official Progressive Shamanists trivia quiz, dated April 23, 1983