Record Executive Returns to Artistic Side of Business

Five years ago, Elaine Summers moved to Los Angeles from San Diego, where since 1980 she had been singing covers with local nightclub bands Poison Ivy and, later, Clubland.

Her goal was to get signed by a major record company. Instead, she got a job with one.

“The only person I knew in L.A. worked at Chrysalis Records, and, seeing as I could use a little extra money, she helped me get a temporary job as a receptionist,” Summers recalled. “As it turned out, I never left.”

Before long, the temporary job had become a permanent one. Then came a series of promotions. Summers spent a year and a half in the label’s artists and repertoire department, followed by another year and a half in marketing. Two years ago, she joined the publicity department and gradually worked her way up to her present position as West Coast manager of publicity.

Still, Summers never lost sight of her original goal. She continued to moonlight as a musician, plying the L.A. nightclub circuit with fellow expatriate San Diegans Rick Elias and singer-guitarist Danny Holiday, with whom she had originally played in Clubland.

Her primary focus, however, was on developing her songwriting skills.

“Doing the cover band thing back in San Diego, that was my very first experience playing music on stage, and it was basically just to get the showmanship part down and see if it was something I was good at,” Summers recalled.

“When I found it was, in fact, something I was good at, I tried writing songs. But it wasn’t until I came up here that I really started writing good songs--and the more I wrote, the better I became.”

It wasn’t until a year ago that Summers finally felt confident enough about her songwriting that she booked time in a local recording studio and cut a demonstration tape--accompanying herself on acoustic guitar--that featured her infectious brand of upbeat power pop. She circulated the tape among her co-workers at Chrysalis and promptly landed a demo deal.

The result was a second tape--professionally produced, and with a full band--that was completed late last year and immediately got rave reviews in the local, statewide, and even national rock press.

“The songwriting is top-notch, with the accent on clever lyrics and fresh language,” noted L.A.’s Music Connection.

“Raised on the Beatles and inspired by Elvis Costello and the Waterboys, she learned her craft well, injecting her songs with a timeless pop-rock quality,” according to BAM, a California music magazine.

And from Hits, a national trade publication: “Elaine . . . is a superior singer/guitarist/songwriter . . . Whoever signs Summers will be getting a quadruple threat--what other artist has the experience to do the A&R;, marketing and publicity on her own album?”

Buoyed by these critical accolades, Summers said, she’s decided to quit her job at Chrysalis--her last day is June 15--and belatedly resume her quest for a record deal.

“When I first gave notice, I was planning to move to London to write more songs and put a band together,” Summers said. ‘I’ve really been influenced by all the bands that came out of England and Scotland and Ireland, and I kind of wanted to go over there to see where they got it from.

“But now, things are starting to happen down here: I’m getting a lot of interest from publishing companies; I’m playing solo every Tuesday I want at Molly Malone’s, an Irish pub in West Hollywood; and a lot of record company people are coming to my shows.

“So I might have to stick around a little longer, just in case something gets sealed.”

Don’t expect great things from Fleetwood Mac when they appear Saturday night at San Diego State University’s Open Air Theater.

The British group’s staying power over the course of more than two decades can be attributed to a continual changing of the guard in creative leaders, each willing and able to try something new, something different: first Peter Green, then Danny Kirwin, then Bob Welch, and, most recently, Lindsey Buckingham, who signed on in 1975.

It was under the Southern California singer-songwriter- guitarist’s leadership that the Mac’s gradual shift in musical direction from electric blues to melodic soft-rock was completed. It was also under Buckingham that the group reached its commercial zenith, with a string of chart-topping singles and albums.

But when Buckingham left two years ago, founders Mick Fleetwood and John McVie’s luck finally ran out. This time, they passed the torch to veteran session players Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, who promptly let it go out.

Fleetwood Mac’s new album, “Behind the Mask,” should have stayed there. Burnette and Vito appear to be more interested in maintaining the status quo than anything else, and their contributions range from innocuous to downright offensive. In the latter category is “In the Back of My Mind,” a pathetic rip-off of Buckingham’s brilliant “Tusk.”

And while the current incarnation of the Mac’s concert repertoire will undoubtedly include plenty of old stuff from the Buckingham Era, somehow, it just won’t be the same.

LINER NOTES: On last year’s inaugural “The Stars Come For Christmas” benefit album, producer Steve Vaus couldn’t accept contributions from agreeable Warner Brothers Records artists Brian Wilson and Randy Travis because of a corporate policy prohibiting the label’s acts from appearing on outside charity albums. But last week, Vaus said, he received a phone call from a top-level Warner executive, informing him that the policy had been lifted due to artist complaints. “It’s certainly a tremendous boost to us,” said Vaus, who’s currently working on a followup, “The Stars Come Out For Christmas 1990.” “We’re hoping that people like Brian Wilson, who were interested last year, will still be interested this year . . .”

San Diego worldbeat band Burning Bridges has released a six- song EP that’s available at the three local Tower Records and Off the Record outlets and at Lou’s Records in Encinitas and Blue Meannie Records in El Cajon. The group is throwing a record- release party June 23 at Winston’s Beach Club in Ocean Beach, with a live performance and record and T-shirt give-aways . . .

Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. for Depeche Mode’s July 28 concert at the San Diego Sports Arena.

This week’s concerts: John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Thursday at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach; David Byrne with Margareth Menezes, Friday at the Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park; Clairseach, Friday at the Del Mar Shores Auditorium; Fleetwood Mac with Squeeze, Friday at the Open Air Theater; Jackson Browne with Sangre Machehual, Saturday at Symphony Hall downtown; Mel Torme, Saturday at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts; George Strait and His Ace in the Hole Band with Patty Loveless, Sunday at the Starlight Bowl; Joe Cocker with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Sunday at the San Diego Sports Arena; and King Sunny Ade, June 12 at the Belly Up Tavern.