Only Dreaming is a retrospective of the original compositions Alex Arguello created. My initial idea for a CD of Alex's original songs turned out to be more complicated than I thought. The source material I brought to the studio sessions came from four and eight track cassettes, ADATS, and a digital workstation. The songs were in varying stages of completion and it was quickly evident that production would require a unique and specialized approach for each song.
Rather than simply turning the songs over to the session musicians to record, I wanted to capture as much as possible of Alex's originals from the demos. With the help of veteran studio engineer Steve Malcolm, we spent over two years in the studio blending Alex's vocals, guitar and keyboard parts with new tracks of the talented musicians. As we brought in the musicians, the song arrangements evolved, but, always, our paramount concern was maintaining the integrity of Alex's compositions.
The following list of credits shows the original tracks in red and then the musicians we added in the order in which they played.
