Find Your Own Way Home is the name of the latest CD from veteran Illinois classic rockers REO Speedwagon. And the album is also the unlikely source of inspiration that led me through what would be an important period of personal exploration in 2007.

I purchased the CD as part of a “can’t miss” three CD package at Wal-Mart on release date in April of 2007 – the regular studio album came accessorized with an additional two discs of content, including a cool DVD that featured the band performing old classics mixed with songs from the new album, all unplugged and acoustic for XM Satellite Radio. It had been so long since I had heard an album of new material from the band, that I honestly wasn’t expecting much. I was buying the package for the bonus content, and what I heard from the studio CD when I put it on, absolutely floored me.

It started when I first heard the album title “Find Your Own Way Home,” as the band began to promote the upcoming release far in advance of the release date. “Good title,” I thought. And thought provoking too, but it was a lot to hope for that the new material would match up and be as good as the album title. Man, did I have a surprise coming my way.

On the day that I brought that new CD home, I had just moved back unexpectedly to the so called “bachelor pad” where I had spent the previous 10 years. A move to the other side of the city had gone unexpectedly awry after 4 months, and the first phone call that I made when things went bust didn’t go to my parents or best friend – instead, I called my old landlord and found out that she hadn’t rented out my beloved apartment yet, and in fact, they were in the process of completely redoing it from top to bottom. So when I moved back after 10 months away, my old place was really a completely new place, although I still found myself going up those same three flights of stairs to reach that familiar space on the third floor of the house.

Find Your Own Way Home was the musical soundtrack that would drive me onward as I began trying to figure out life, round two.

Can’t really say it’s been a good year
I know I’ve seen better days
Some things that shouldn’t have been going on around here
Been going on anyways

REO Speedwagon – Smilin’ in the End (live at XM Satellite Radio)

Check out an electrified live version of the track that is more representative of the studio version, here.

“Smilin’ in the End,” was the raucous album opener that was very likely the loudest thing that many had heard from REO in years, and it did a great job of setting the tone as the opening shot on the album.

There’s no easy way to say goodbye
I prayed this day would never come
It’s best if I just walk away
Better if I run

REO Speedwagon – Another Lifetime

“Another Lifetime” (download) addresses the subject that many, if not all of us, have encountered. That “sure thing” that we had that was “the one,” has come to an end. We could be together in “another lifetime,” but for today, things are very clearly done. It’s a heavy place to be, but also speaks lyrically to the fact that what’s over is done. And in my case, I think that I knew subconsciously that things were done, and had been for a while. I had finally gotten the official notice that I needed to move on, and there was nowhere to go but up.

You are everything you feel, everything you know
Everyone you ever love, all that you let go
Everything you hide, all that you reveal
Everything you overcome, you are everything you feel

REO Speedwagon – Everything You Feel (download)

Find Your Own Way Home found its way onto my newly acquired Ipod and was playing frequently through my stereo speakers at home, and on the road as I drove from city to city. I was in the midst of many rock and roll road trips to musically clear my head, and at the same time, I was trying to figure out if it was time for me to move onward and elsewhere after nearly 20 years in Cleveland.

Now, I’m sure you can all insert your appropriate Cleveland joke here, but I’m telling you, I actually had to think about this one!

I came home at the end of July from Chicago where I had been attending Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, and in my mind, I had already begun to work out my exit strategy. I was going to go to Chicago and begin again. And then something unexpected happened – I found out that a departed friend’s house was going on the market. It was a house where I had spent many a great evening, and though I didn’t end up in that house, it ultimately led me to put down official roots in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, my home base for most of those past 10 years. I bought a house in December of last year and in my mind, I had finally found my way home, indeed.

Find Your Own Way Home is not a perfect album, but it is damn close. There are a couple of songs that are a bit cheesy lyrically, and REO Speedwagon bass player Bruce Hall contributes an ill-advised lead vocal and writing credit with “Born To Love You,” which is not exactly in the same league of his most noted REO contribution, “Back On The Road Again.” And honestly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of “Back On The Road Again.”

The album wraps with “Let My Love Find You” (download,) a song which to me is filled with the same hope that I am feeling today in 2008. Against all odds, we’ve battled our way back to good, and REO Speedwagon have done that in a perfectly reasonable 10 tracks, a number of new songs that feels like quality, and just right.

A year after its release, I was interested to read the following Newsweek piece that chronicles the tough love and hard times within REO lead singer Kevin Cronin, who struggled to help his son battle an ongoing drug problem. The subject matter is revealed for the first time, as Cronin’s personal inspiration for Find Your Own Way Home.

I shared the story with my mom, who had the following reaction, which is actually a subject and something that we have discussed several times over the years:

You know, the story behind this album reminds me that so often when we look at or visit with or meet someone (or even know someone for a long time) we often don’t REALLY know what’s going on inside them or what tough road they are walking. Often, for me, it’s sobering and/or inspiring to find out what someone has really been faced with and perhaps triumphed over.

Indeed.

Relevant links:

REO Speedwagon – Find Your Own Way Home

Amazon – CD and MP3 downloads available – purchase
Itunes – purchase

Kevin Cronin: You Need To Fall To Rise
REO Speedwagon official website
Kevin Cronin official website

Hear samples of four more tracks via the official REO Speedwagon Myspace page.