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Singer-songwriter Mike Thomas may have landed in Nashville, but he still considers East Tennessee home — and Saturday night, he'll return to celebrate the release of his five-song debut album, "Headlights and Heartaches," with friends and family at the venue that helped launch his career.

Saturday night's gig at Union Jack's is a homecoming of sorts for Thomas, who taught himself to play guitar when he discovered his dad's record collection and began studying the songs of Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Gordon Lightfoot. Small wonder, then, that "Headlights and Heartaches" remains rooted in that one-guy-with-a-guitar-and-a-story-to-tell sort of tradition ... but the album has a few surprises on it as well.

"For the longest time, I've been known as a solo artist, and everything I did was all very much acoustic," Thomas told The Daily Times this week. "I love that kind of thing, but when I would create the songs, I would hear these arrangements in my head, and I would know the way I wanted them to sound. The music I write, I generally write for a band in mind, so in the studio, it was really fascinating to see how the songs came to life when I brought the guys in and put bass and organ and Mitch Rutman's lead guitar work in there.

"To me, that really transformed the songs. Although I didn't get exactly what I was going for on every song, I was very pleased with the way they turned out overall. I've played with bands, but I've never recorded with a band, so the whole thing was a learning experience for me. And I think it turned out pretty well."

Fans who fell in love with Thomas' solo show and his rich voice may cringe at the thought of a rock 'n' roll band tackling his songs. They shouldn't worry — on songs like "Walk Away," Rutman (a local guitar virtuoso and bandleader in his own right, and a longtime collaborator of Thomas) and members of his band add snarling firepower to the song. A little attitude and urgency go a long way, and Thomas finds the perfect pitch that doesn't back down to the plugged-in sound but doesn't get overwhelmed by it, either. The slower tempo of "Mary Anne" rises and falls with all the beauty of a sleeping child's chest, and Thomas finds a range that puts him somewhere between Edwin McCain and Will Hoge. There's still plenty of acoustic beauty on the album as well, and Thomas' picking, while not flashy or dazzling, fits the song like a comfortable old coat that looks good and feels better no matter how many years it hangs in the closet.

"I've been working on this EP since before I got married back in 2004; I know it sounds kind of goofy to say I've been working on it for two years and it's just five songs, but it's just kind of one of those things I would do as I had time," Thomas said. "I never had the luxury to just block out a couple of weeks and knock it out. I recorded it there in (Knoxville) at Hook and Groove Studios, and it was one of those situations where when I was in town, I would go by and lay a couple of tracks down.

"I had a couple of guys there who played on the record, and we just pieced it together song-by-song. I got four songs on it and thought I was going to let it go as a demo/four-song EP, but then I added 'Mary Anne' and just decided to put it on there and put it out. If I'd had my druthers, I would have put about 10 songs on it, but in the interests of time and money, I just decided to go ahead with it."

Those who have been turning out for years to hear Thomas play are no doubt relieved to finally have a hard copy of his music. Thomas got his start playing at Java Coffeehouse in West Knoxville, about the same time he became old enough to drive. A few years later, his reputation as a musician had grown steadily, and as a percussion major at UT, he found himself landing steady gigs at Union Jack's, on Northshore Drive off Kingston Pike. It was there he met Rutman, a caterer to such musicians as Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews.

Rutman, on a break from work, had returned home to Knoxville, and a shared set of friends encouraged him to check out Thomas' Union Jack's set. Rutman was wowed, and when he asked to spell Thomas and play a few songs himself, a fast friendship formed. The pair often played as a duo, at least until Thomas got married and moved to Nashville a couple of years ago.

"I moved there because I was working on Music Row, where I got a job right out of college working down there for the Americana Music Association," he said. "I was doing freelance journalism and doing some editing for American Songwriter magazine, but I found out I needed to eat and pay my bills, so I started looking around for some jobs. I found a good one at the same time my wife started working at Vanderbilt, and Nashville suddenly seemed like the right place to stay for us. It's close enough to where we can get back home every now and then, so it's been good."

He's continued to hone his songwriting chops and has even pitched a few songs to the country music establishment in Nashville. Because the songs don't necessarily fit the formula of country-pop that Nashville churns out these days, he hasn't had a lot of luck, but he said he hasn't let that discourage him.

"I always thought, when I started doing the whole songwriting and performing thing, was that my ultimate goal would be to get some songs recorded by more widely known artists," he said. "I never wanted to pursue a career as a performer, per se, but I do enjoy it — I just enjoy it more as a hobby and not as my work. For me, I'd be happy to just play my gigs around Nashville and Knoxville and have a little following; that would just tickle me to death.

"I've had some interest in some of my songs, but Nashville's a funny town. I had one publisher who was quite interested in my music, but he couldn't get past my voice. All he wanted to talk about was how good my voice was, and I would ask him, 'What about the songs?' He told me that the songs are really good, that the lyrics are great, but that they're not radio-friendly.

"Nashville is very good at churning out a product, but if you don't kind of fit the mold of that polished product they're looking for, it's kind of tough," he added. "But I'll keep plugging away, and hopefully someone will hear one some day that they think they can do something with."