Out today (May 22nd) is 26 East, Vol. 1 — Styx co-founder Dennis DeYoung's seventh studio album and his first since 2007's One Hundred Years From Now. DeYoung had teased a pair of tracks from the new album — a team-up with Julian Lennon called “To The Good Old Days,” along with the album’s lead track, “East Of Midnight.”
The album takes its title from his childhood home in Roseland, the South side of Chicago, where he and Styx co-founders, twins Chuck and John Panozzo, first started playing together nearly 60-years-ago.
Dennis DeYoung collaborated on the new set with fellow Chicago native — Ides Of March and Survivor leader, Jim Peterik. He admitted to us that he was unsure if he had the juice for another album in him: “But, after we finished the first one, I said, okay. 'Cause, let me just say, all you musicians out there — particularly rock musicians — don't make records. Don't make singles — whatever you wanna call these things. Don't make downloads, unless you've got good songs. Stop clogging the airwave(s) up with crap. Now, because everyone can make a record — everybody makes one! And I'm just sayin' I wouldn't do it, because I didn't know if I had the songs. In fact, I took no money until the very end when I was certain I had songs that were worthy of an audience listening to.”
