Attendees at the 149th Annual, Lehigh vs. LaFayette game, Bethlehem, PA 2013

Crafting Original Music, Spanning Three Decades.

Founding Members of The Progressive Shamanists on break in the Poconos.

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Women Drivers



The Progressive Shamanists, including Rob Prigge, Rob Kowtko and Greg Pichler, met at the studio in Tanglewood, Pennsylvania on the weekend, starting Friday, January 7, 1982.

Bassist, David Axelrod, who was a personal friend of Kowtko's, was also in attendance at the studio session over the weekend by invitation. Axelrod, like Kowtko, had by 1983 compiled an arsenal of original music. The group rehearsed and recorded renditions of one of Axelrod's compositions, including a rendition of his original song, Live Shamanistic Dreams.

Over the course of the weekend sessions the group rehearsed and recorded seven songs onto a cassette tape, using a cassette tape recorder owned by Pichler.

Kowtko introduced one new composition to the group, including the title track of the collection, Women Drivers, whereas Pichler introduced one new, original song to the group, namely, English Image.

In addition to rehearsing a rendition of Axelrod's composition and recording an initial rendition of Kowtko's new contribution, Women Drivers, and recording an initial rendition of Pichler's new contribution, English Image, the group recorded a number of new renditions of Kowtko's and Pichler's inventory of original material, including a rendition of Kowtko's original song, Cobra Eyes, a new rendition of Pichler's original song, Charleen and a new rendition of Pichler's original song, Twenty-One Years.

Axelrod' attendance at the bequest of Kowtko was in effect a second audition for the role of bassist for the group. The first audition was held over the course of the weekend, starting Friday, July 16, 1982. In any event Axelrod's participation in the group's music was short-lived. Personal friction between Axelrod and Pichler set in after the session recordings on evening of Saturday, January 8, 1983 and adversely effected the session recordings on Sunday. The weekend session, starting on Friday, January 7, 1983 was to be Axelrod's last appearance as the group's bassist on studio equivalent albums. The group's next studio session starting Friday, March 25, 1983 would again go without any contribution from a bass guitarist.

Credits

The YouTube video, Women Drivers, features a number of still photo images of the members of the group over the course of the weekend, starting Friday, January 7, 1982. The title track on the YouTube music video, 00:03:07 (Track 2) Women Drivers features still photographic images of Michele Doralp taken on March 12, 2006.


Music Contributions

The following contributions were applied to the music video:

  • Rob Prigge: percussion, vocals
  • David Axelrod: bass guitar
  • Rob Kowtko: keyboards, vocals
  • Greg Pichler: guitar, vocals

List of Tracks

The list of tracks from the albumthat resulted from the work over the weekend includes:

  1. 00:00:02 (Track 1) Cobra Eyes (R Kowtko)
  2. 00:03:07 (Track 2) Women Drivers (R Kowtko)
  3. 00:07:28 (Track 3) Charleen (GE Pichler)
  4. 00:12:46 (Track 4) The Time Is Right // Grasshopper Boogie (Kowtko, Pichler, Prigge)
  5. 00:18:22 (Track 5) Live Shamanistic Dreams (David Axelrod)
  6. 00:25:44 (Track 6) Twenty-One Years (GE Pichler)
  7. 00:28:38 (Track 7) English Image (GE Pichler)

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