Gary Yerkins’ album Compass is out and available now. I produced, engineered and mixed the long-awaited solo effort from this journeyman songwriter and long time front man for Chicago bands The Insiders and the Juleps. Pick it up on the iTunes now. Or be old fashioned and buy the compact disc HERE.

Elaine Summers and I have been writing songs for a new album. For those of you just tuning in, we have been threatening to make an album called “Droge & Summers” for some time. Elaine thinks “Summers & Droge” has a ring to it. I have always leaned towards the alphabetical approach. What do you think? Anyway, for this record, we want to have songs that are tailor made for our harmony singing. So, we are really rolling up our sleeves and dedicating ourselves to the writing process. The theory is to write way more songs than we will need in hopes of gathering a collection of killers. It has been a refreshing change of pace to leave the studio in ‘standby’ mode and get out the pencil and paper. And eraser.

There are some other things going on around The Puzzle Tree: new floors going in on the first floor… fresh paint… new ceiling absorbers and diffusors in the drum room etc. I have also been taking some time to smell the roses. And eradicate some black berries.