After many years of on-and-off work, the Thomas Reed Smith Band’s album “Out On Your Own” is finished. As I type this, the mastered album is on its way here via the good old U.S. mail.

This album is a follow-up to Tom’s first record “I Need A Change” which we released around 2000. Yep, your math is correct – it’s been over 10 years. Why did we go up against “Chinese Democracy” for the longest time taken to make an album?

Well, in a nutshell, shit happens. After we finished “I Need A Change”, we continued to play out and promote the album for about a year. At the same time I had gotten involved in playing with another Cleveland band, and of course I was working my day gig as well.

We started work on the new songs, and did a fair amount of tracking, including some sessions at Closer Look studios with Jim Evans on drums and Mike Holloran on percussion. Work stopped in 2001 when I had family issues to deal with. Then I lost my job, moved across town, and holed up for a while. Mike Adams went back to school for a couple years, Jim moved to Nashville, and Tom started his own business.

Time goes by fast, sometimes. For several years I hardly worked on any music – my head was just somewhere else. In 2006 or thereabouts, we started a regular studio night here, which we continue to this day. We initially worked on finishing the languishing drunkdude69 album “Funk Out With Your Junk Out“, which we finally completed in 2008.

Through 2009 we worked on the DD69 follow-up record “Wigs & Liquor“, which we recently completed. At the beginning of 2010 I decided Tom’s project had been on the shelf for way too long, and I somehow coaxed him into coming here and doing the final guitar tracks last February.

I finished the mixes in November, and we sent the songs off for mastering in December. As of today, the design is finished, and once the production CDs arrive, we’ll get the manufacturing process started. It’s a very good feeling to finally have it done, and we’re looking forward to making it publicly available after all this time.