Dreamer

Origin: California (USA)

DREAMER

Discography:

st. - 1982

Notes:

- Dreamer was originally formed in 1980 with founding members songwriter/keyboardist/producer Tom Slack, drummer Larry Dent, lead-singer/front-man Grady Smith, and executive producer/manager of the band Michael McNulty. These four friends went back to the early days, forming and fine-tuning their musical talents. Grady began to dazzle audiences with his golden voice and four octave range, singing in the top club circuit in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas, while Larry and Tom were off touring with various recording artists. Larry, who truly is a master of his instrument, ended up as one of the main members of "The International Reggae All-Stars" while Tom pursued his career touring and playing with such recording artists as "Shalamar", "Michael Jackson", and The "Monkees", as well as other top acts.
It was early 1981 when Dreamer acquired lead guitarist Mark Moulin and bassist Doug Lunn. The band began pre-production for the EP. Tom wrote and produced the four songs for the project. It was recorded at the infamous Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, CA, home of many great rock albums from Pat Benatar, Joe Walsh, Fleetwood Mac, and the list goes on. The band hired Gary Lubow to engineer the EP. He has worked with such greats as Joe Walsh and Mick Fleetwood. A close friend of the band, Johnny Almond of the "Mark/Almond Band", was the guest artist who performed the sax solo on the cut "Nothing To Lose".
In 1982 the EP, "Dreamer", was released and sales were quite good. It wasn't long when the band acquired yet another member, guitarist/singer Steve Elowe, to round out and complete the rock ensemble for live performances. Dreamer began to play at the top choice rock clubs in Southern California areas and was well received. "The Joe Perry Project", formally of "Aerosmith", opened for one of the Dreamer engagements.
It was during this time when the boys began writing more songs to add to the Dreamer repertoire. The band went back into the studio, this time to John Elefonte's, aka "Kansas" lead singer, Packaderm Studios. There they recorded an additional ten songs. Unfortunately, as circumstances arose, the band had an untimely break-up. Members took advantage of other proven opportunities. These ten songs were never released. Until now. AOR-FM RECORDS came across the unreleased material through Dreamer's manager Michael McNulty. This indie label signed the band to one "limited series" CD with four of the original songs from the EP along with the ten never before released. All these great classic rock songs from this "collector's edition" CD, "We've Got The Power", are now available on itunes and amazon. For those of you who missed out on this rare CD, this is your chance to download these classic 80s rock tunes. ROCK ON! -

(http://www.songcastmusic.com/artistbio?id=23451)



- Small time band from California who came and went but left a 1982 imprint in the way of a 4 track EP. A racy affair played in the vein of a high tempo Loverboy. Apart from the one ballad, the EP has a tough stance to it (if you can imagine that in an AOR perspective, not Manowar or The Rods). You can understand why this EP went for high prices back in the day.. perhaps less so in this day and age of blog downloads etc.

Leading out with some keyboard effects, 'Nothing To Lose' churns up some rough rhythm guitar in Redvette fashion, the vocals of Grady Smith a standout. More spicy keyboard fills from Tom Slack colours up the second track 'Angel Of The Night' - the whole thing coming off like Loverboy on multi-vitamins! The ballad 'Journey To Romance' is the only change-up moment, though it does contain a ton of keyboards. Finishing with the uptempo 'Cheap Shot Lovers', again it takes Loverboy and a splurge of Rick Springfield to wind down the vinyl. Yee hah!

Thank goodness they left us with something! 4 tracks, 2 tracks whatever. Of course it would've been great to see them in a studio with a big budget doing the business. I reckon these guys could've been superstars back in the day! Oh well, dreams are free! -

(http://gdm.glorydazemusic.com/articles.php?article_id=1653)