At age 29, J.D. Reager has spent more than half his life -- well, in some ways all his life -- in the music business. Though he's played in several bands, engineered numerous records, and been onstage since junior high, he's never put out his own album.

"And it started to feel like if I didn't put an album out or did something with these songs I had," says Reager, "that I would always regret it."

Reager won't have to nurse any regrets, as his solo debut The Repechage is released locally this week (it will come out nationally in January). He'll mark the occasion with a performance tonight at Nocturnal, the former site of Midtown's legendary Antenna Club.

It's a fitting location for Reager to celebrate the disc and, in fact, brings his career full circle. "My first gig was actually at the old Antenna club opening for the Grifters when I was 14 years old," says Reager. "I was playing drums in dad's punk rock band."

Reager's father, John Paul Reager, was a Midtown fixture, a sometime sound man at the Antenna and a member of popular '80s outfit The Modifiers. "I was kind of raised at the Antenna Club, since my dad worked there and played there. He did sound for shows by R.E.M. and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and his band opened up for Black Flag. It was a pretty interesting way to grow up."

Reager -- who took up drums after seeing Micky Dolenz during the Monkees' mid-'80s comeback -- soon expanded his skills, learning how to play guitar and bass in addition to drums. "My dad played guitar and bass, so he kind of always wanted me to do that too. Aside from playing in rock bands, he was a very accomplished musician. He knew jazz chords that I still can't even conceive of," says Reager. "But he was always supportive."

After graduating high school, Reager didn't go off to college, but rather hit the road with another veteran Memphis punk act, Pezz. "In 1999, I went on tour with them. We did like a hundred shows in four months on one tour. That was a mind blowing experience," says Reager. "To me, that was my college. While all my friends were going off to school and studying, I was crammed in a tour van with a bunch of smelly older dudes."

Choosing to continue his career in music, Reager moved to Knoxville in 2000, and launched a band called The Passport Again (a couple of the songs he wrote for the group were revamped and re-recorded for The Repechage). A year later, he met future wife Jennifer in Murfreesboro, moved there and joined another band, Glossary, before finally deciding to return to Memphis in 2004.

He soon fell back in with a crew of childhood chums, including Makeshift Records leader and Snowglobe frontman Brad Postlethwaite. Reager found himself playing with a number of Makeshift acts and recording others at his own studio, Unclaimed Recordings. He would also help run the label and become one of the key organizers behind the "Rock for Love" benefit concerts for the Church Health Center.

Through it all, though, Reager was slowly stockpiling songs with an eye toward making his own record some day.

Starting back in 2005, Reager quietly began putting together some of that material for a solo album and enlisting a crew of notable locals -- from The Subteens' Mark Akin to Lucero's Ben Nichols to Mississippi folkie John Murry -- to guest.

As an outgrowth of the sessions, Reager also formed a live outfit, The Cold Blooded Three -- featuring drummer Joey Pegram, bassist Eric Wilson, saxophonist Justin Jordan, guitarist Ryan Proctor, and keyboardist Jason Pulley -- to begin gigging around town.

After Reager was forced to shut down his Unclaimed Studio late last year due to financial woes, his old Knoxville friend and The Passport Again bandmate Jonathan Kelley and his brother Fred, offered studio time and their mixing talents to help complete The Repechage. The finished album, released as a joint effort between Makeshift and the Kelleys' Migrant label, is a sharp mix of a moody roots rock, blithe power pop and the occasional punk-ish touch, that succeeds as a distillation of Reager's long journey as a musician.

Reager is already eyeing future projects: The other group he currently plays in, Two Way Radio, is about to start recording a new album at Ardent Studios with producer Scott Bomar for release next year.

For now, though, Reager can take some hard-earned satisfaction in the simple fact that The Repechage will be out in the world. "If nothing else, I can be happy that I managed to make this one record," says Reager. "At the end of the day, whether people like it or not, I can always say I did it."

-- Bob Mehr, 529-2517

PREVIEW

J.D. Reager & The Cold Blooded Three with Two Way Radio, Bulletproof Vests, and stand-up comedian Mary Jordan perform tonight beginning at 9 at Nocturnal, 1588 Madison. Cover is $5 .