Biography
Elaine Summers made her initial public mark as a vocalist by supporting singer-songwriter Pete Droge, who would later share both professional and personal ties with her. She ventured into solo territory via the 1997 release Transplanting, an album that Droge fully produced, engineered, and mixed. Summers maintains a parallel career as a visual artist, with one of her mosaic pieces appearing on the artwork for her follow-up album Sparkler.
A native of Virginia, Summers traces her drive to perform to a Bruce Springsteen show she attended in 1978. While based in Portland during the early 1990s and trying to establish herself musically, she crossed paths with Droge, who was then performing solo on the local circuit. She soon joined him as a backing singer, and after Droge secured a recording contract she remained with him as part of his band, the Sinners. The group traveled extensively, opening for headline acts including Neil Young and Tom Petty. During a break in touring, Droge assisted Summers in laying down demos of her own songs. Those recordings reached Stone Gossard, the Pearl Jam member who runs Loosegroove Records, prompting him to urge her to complete a project for the label; the outcome was Transplanting.
Droge remained involved on the second album, Sparkler, yet the pair recruited fellow Sinners musicians to handle the instrumental parts, shifting away from the shared playing duties that marked the debut. The resulting sound proved more layered and refined than its predecessor, incorporating folk and country textures alongside occasional echoes of the urbane roots style associated with artists such as Sheryl Crow and Tom Petty. The track listing also included a version of Gram Parsons’s lesser-known song “Just Can't Take It Anymore.” Although the record had been slated for release on Will Records, it sat unreleased for two years before Summers issued it independently in 2002.
A native of Virginia, Summers traces her drive to perform to a Bruce Springsteen show she attended in 1978. While based in Portland during the early 1990s and trying to establish herself musically, she crossed paths with Droge, who was then performing solo on the local circuit. She soon joined him as a backing singer, and after Droge secured a recording contract she remained with him as part of his band, the Sinners. The group traveled extensively, opening for headline acts including Neil Young and Tom Petty. During a break in touring, Droge assisted Summers in laying down demos of her own songs. Those recordings reached Stone Gossard, the Pearl Jam member who runs Loosegroove Records, prompting him to urge her to complete a project for the label; the outcome was Transplanting.
Droge remained involved on the second album, Sparkler, yet the pair recruited fellow Sinners musicians to handle the instrumental parts, shifting away from the shared playing duties that marked the debut. The resulting sound proved more layered and refined than its predecessor, incorporating folk and country textures alongside occasional echoes of the urbane roots style associated with artists such as Sheryl Crow and Tom Petty. The track listing also included a version of Gram Parsons’s lesser-known song “Just Can't Take It Anymore.” Although the record had been slated for release on Will Records, it sat unreleased for two years before Summers issued it independently in 2002.
Albums
