Dream Walkin'

Selected as one of the Fifteen Favorite (nationaly released) Jazz Albums for 2015 by jazz journalist/critic George Varga!

“The duo album Peter and Leonard made, ‘Dream Walkin’,” is staggering!” It’s on a level of musicianship that is in the top .00001 percent of what it is to be a musician.”
Pat Metheny

San Diego Union-Tribune interview

2021

Back in 1991 I played a concert at Mesa College and this young singer introduced himself and expressed his interest in doing some recording over at my studio. He wanted me to both play the guitar and engineer. I dug his spirit and enthusiasm and when I heard him sing I was knocked out. That began a long and inspired musical arc with Leonard Patton and our latest recording Dream Walkin’ documents our current musical angle. For the last 5 years we’ve been playing frequently just as a duo and not only is it economically streamlined, it’s also one of the slickest musical collaborations I’ve ever been involved with. Lots of improvising, a full broadband song repertoire, freedom at any moment to travel somewhere new, Leonard singing and playing cajon at the same time, me with my nylon guitar outfitted with a looper and a synth, and together we’re exploring jazz, samba, and swing — we’re including everything we can dream up. We’re Dream Walkin’ in a psychedelic audio wonderland and it just keeps on expanding outwards. We thank you for coming along for the adventure. Ears open!  

Peter Sprague

July, 2015

Click here for live video mashup of all of the songs on the new CD. 

Bananeira

Gilberto Gil

Can’t Buy Me Love
Lennon–McCartney

Shenandoah — Your Smiling Face
traditional — James Taylor

Dream Walkin’

Music by Peter Sprague 

Lyrics by Randy Phillips 

© Satyam Music / BMI, Blue Violet Music ASCAP

Voltar Para Casa

Music by Peter Sprague 

© Satyam Music

Can’t Find My Way Home
Steve Winwood

That Girl

Stevie Wonder

Georgia on My Mind
Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell

With a Little Help From My Friends
Lennon–McCartney

Straighten Up and Fly Right
Nat King Cole and Irving Mills

Little Wing

Jimi Hendrix

Below is a special bonus track included on the album download or available for single download!

Castles Made of Sand
Jimi Hendrix

On all tracks:

Peter Sprague — guitar, guitar synth, arrangements

Leonard Patton — vocals, percussion

Produced by Peter Sprague

Recorded at SpragueLand Studios, Encinitas, CA / 2015

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Peter Sprague at SpragueLand Studios

Art direction and design by RixGraphix

Cover art by Annika Nelson

CD Review 
October 2015 in the San Diego Troubadour

Guitarist Peter Sprague is a musician I’ve been listening to since my undergraduate days at UCSD. Sprague caught my ear because, though a young man, he found his inspiration in the old school jazz and his playing revealed the influence of fine, older guitarists like Joe Pass, Charlie Byrd, and Kenny Burrell. Sprague (who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award this month by the San Diego Music Foundation) is his own person on the guitar, being a fleet fingered, vibrant stylist. This was a time when much of what was called jazz was, in fact, directionless riffing over static rhythms. Peter Sprague’s music, to cite a classic line, was the sound of surprise.

Dream Walkin’, his most recent release with vocalist and percussionist Leonard Patton, brings an intriguing variety of influences .A revelation is just how fine a vocalist Leonard Patton is. He has a rich voice, soulful with clear sense of dynamics. A jazzed-up take on the Beatles pop hit “Can’t Find Me Love” showcases him charging the lyrics with a trumpet player’s spirit, popping at the high notes and revealing a wonderful singing unison lines with Sprague’s agile chord work. Patton, as well, is an adept and responsive percussionist, preferring a minimal set up, in perfect sync with Sprague through the gorgeously modulated melodies and keenly swift improvisations.

The album has a diverse selection of songs that might suggest that the album would become too diffuse and seem likewise directionless in intent, but Sprague and Patton achieve a tight yet flexible sound, allowing music to flow without harsh contrasts. Sprague performs a heart breaking version of the classic “Shenandoah,” his guitar, reverberating and chiming on the aching build of tension and release, and Patton follows with a chorus that makes the song ache even more with the longing for missed people, places, and things. This segues, unexpectedly, with a galloping version of James Taylor’s song “Your Smiling Face,” the perfect resolution to the yearning of the song before it. Patton’s voice perks up, Sprague’s guitar picks up the tempo, and what seemed like a sad moment of reflection becomes joyful.

Dream Walkin’ is joyful in total. The arrangements are tight but not constricted, loose in the sense of musicians who know the structure, the subtle tones, and the unexpected detours of song and are able to anticipate each other’s next move. Also remarkable is the full sound the two create; one admires Sprague not just for his speed and technique, but also for the dexterity of his finger picking and the finesse he allows when he uses a pick. And you come to appreciate, with each listen, the sure, discreet work Patton brings to the percussion tasks.