Styx founding member Dennis DeYoung is back with a brand new solo album, entitled ’26 East, Vol. 1′, with two songs from it being made available as singles today.
Of ‘To The Good Old Days,’ which is a duet with Julian Lennon, DeYoung states that “it was written specifically for Jules and I to sing together. He nailed the vocal and I harmonized. Harmony baby, I love it. It’s the final song on the album and it’s a simple farewell from me as I recall the sweetest days of my past with my fans, friends, family and forgiveness.”
Meanwhile, ‘East Of Midnight’ is described as “a song about how late night radio changed our lives as the music transported us to a world bigger than the one we knew.”
26 East was the address where DeYoung grew up in Roseland on the far south side of Chicago and is where Styx was formed in his basement in 1962. Across the street lived the Panozzo twins, John and Chuck, who along with DeYoung would go on to form the nucleus of the band. The cover artwork of the new album features three locomotives traveling through space, representing the original members leaving Chicago on their journey to the stars.
“This was supposed to be my final album but there were so many songs written that Serafino (Perugino, CEO of Frontiers) suggested dividing it into two albums rather than one,” explains DeYoung. “This is Volume 1, which sounds pretentious to me, but the marketing folks wanted you to know there are going to be two of them, so hey kids, there are two of them. This is Volume 1.”
The album process actually began in the first place when Jim Peterik, a fellow Chicagoan and nearby neighbour, sent him a song. “If not for Jim’s encouragement, talent and prodding, I would not have recorded this album. He once told me the world needed my music; to which I replied ‘have the world text me for verification.’ We collaborated from the get go, happily and seamlessly and at this time we have written nine songs together of which five will be on Volume 1. Just two Chicago guys doing what they do best, making music and having a laugh.”
The US promotion of ’26 East, Vol 1′ will see DeYoung appear at the House of Blues in Chicago on 3rd April, which will include a Q&A session with both DeYoung and Peterik to discuss the record and be followed by a live performance of The Music of Styx. DeYoung will also tour heavily throughout 2020, with more than twenty US shows already confirmed.
26 EAST, VOL 1
TRACKLISTING
1 East Of Midnight
2 With All Due Respect
3 A Kingdom Ablaze
4 You My Love
5 Run For The Roses
6 Damn That Dream
7 Unbroken
8 The Promise Of This Land
9 To The Good Old Days
10 A.D. 2020
LINE-UP
Dennis DeYoung – keyboards, fake drums, fake bass, fake news and some vocals. Oh, and vuvuzela
Jim Peterik – guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals and vuvuzela
August Zadra – electric guitars, vocals
Jimmy Leahey – acoustic and electric guitars
Craig Carter – Bass, vocals and invocations
Mighty Mike Morales – drums and all day sound checker
John Blasucci – keyboards
Mike Aquino – electric guitars
Kevin Chalfant – backing vocals
Matthew DeYoung – drums on ‘To The Good Old Days’
Ed Breckenfeld – drums on ‘Unbroken’
Zoe and Austin Orchard for Ring Around The Rosie
The Chicago Children’s Choir and conductor Josephine Lee
