When inspiration strikes, it often doesn’t discriminate. For Andy Thomas, the urge to record his own album came in the parking lot of a Home Depot. Newly sober and shaking off the disorienting fog of years on the road as a guitarist for the hard-touring Americana/jam outfit Yarn and his own Richmond, Va.-based Trongone Band, Thomas was hungry for the sort of change that comes when you know you’re running out of options. He acknowledges as much on “Long Gone,” an antsy swamp-rock charger produced by Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools.
“It’s a last-chance song—the last stop to get on and ride or get left behind,” says Thomas. “I was driving when I wrote the opening line, using the floorboard as the bass drum and the dash as the snare.”
“Long Gone” was still an unfinished idea when he brought it to Schools. “We unpacked it on the floor of the tracking room,” says Thomas. “The boys really brought this one to life, and Josh (Shilling)’s gospel organ really elevates the whole track to a different dimension.”
We’re proud to premiere Andy Thomas’ “Long Gone.”
—Hobart Rowland
