The debut album from songwriter Thomas D’Amour will benefit long-time local producer Jim Tierney, who has suffered two strokes.

Kittery native Thomas D’Amour has been writing songs for more than 20 years, but until recently, he had never recorded a CD. D’Amour had attempted to record in the past, but the songs never quite sounded the way he wanted them to.

“It just didn’t sound good. It didn’t sound like me,” he said.

That changed when he teamed up with producer Jim Tierney of The Electric Cave recording studio in Portsmouth. D’Amour met Tierney through a mutual friend who had some extra recording time booked at The Cave. D’Amour brought his guitar to the studio and played a set for Tierney, at first just hoping to record an acoustic demo that he could shop around to venues as he looked for gigs.

After hearing D’Amour play, Tierney encouraged him to make a full album. D’Amour didn’t have much money to spend, but Tierney insisted.

“I found his songwriting was really strong, so I jumped on it,” Tierney said. “I was just intrigued by it.”

Ten months later, D’Amour’s debut album is complete. He will unveil “Don Brown’s Last Ride” with a CD release show at 236 Union St. in Portsmouth on Saturday, Dec. 17, following an opening set from Guy Capecelatro III.

The release show and all sales of the CD will benefit Tierney, who has suffered two strokes within the last few months, leaving him partially incapacitated. He’s gradually recovering, but the medical expenses are still piling up.

Without Tierney’s help, the CD never would have happened. D’Amour has always had doubts about his voice and never felt comfortable in the studio. He said Tierney’s encouragement and support served as a “huge confidence booster,” and his simple approach to recording helped D’Amour relax. Most of the vocal parts were recorded in single takes, replicating the atmosphere of a live performance. As a result, his punk-infused, country-folk songs sound more authentic and less forced.

“It really does have that vulnerable feeling,” D’Amour said.

In addition to engineering and producing the disc, Tierney played several instruments—Telecaster, bass, mandolin, tenor banjo, toy piano and more.

“He did the lion’s share of everything,” D’Amour said.

Tierney, D’Amour and drummer Steve Toland, formerly of Death and Taxes, form the core of the band. But Tierney roped in a number of other noted local musicians to help out, including Marc McElroy, Joel Paul and Bob Halperin. Wimpy Rutherford of The Queers and Trish Muchemore of Hotrod Fury provide backing vocals.

All said, D’Amour estimates Tierney spent upwards of 800 hours working on the album, which includes nine songs totaling less than 25 minutes. Despite the 10 months of work, he only asked for $300 or $400, D’Amour said.

D’Amour is not the only local musician who has benefited from Tierney’s expertise. He founded The Electric Cave in 1999 and, before that, ran a studio called The Bunkhouse. He’s recorded hundreds of albums, mostly in the punk vein, including local classics by groups like The Queers and The Serfs. At the time he ran into his health problems, he was finishing up an album with accordionist Gary Sredzienski.

Tierney has also worked extensively with Trish Muchemore, drummer for former Seacoast punk band Hotrod Fury. Now in her 30s, she’s known Tierney since she was a teenager and has helped out as a studio hand at The Electric Cave. She said his professional but laid-back style helps bring out the best in musicians.

“He’s pretty easygoing. He’s very serious about what he does, but he doesn’t make you feel too pressured,” Muchemore said. “He has a ton of patience with people in the studio. He’s very encouraging.”

In fact, Tierney was the reason Muchemore started playing the drums at age 26, she said. She often fooled around on a drum kit while they were waiting for a band to arrive at the studio, and Tierney was impressed that she could hold a solid rhythm. She laughed it off at first, but he pushed her to keep practicing.

“He kind of forced me to do it at first, and then I really started to love it,” she said. “I was pretty lucky to have The Electric Cave. I had a key to the studio and I could go in and play the drums at 1 o’clock in the morning if I wanted to, and he was totally encouraging of that.”

Tierney was performing with D’Amour at The Red Door in Portsmouth when he suffered his first minor stroke about three months ago.

“We were playing and he just started playing something else,” D’Amour said. “It was obvious something was wrong, but nobody thought anything close to what it was.”

Tierney did not realize he had suffered a stroke until friends convinced him to go to the hospital a couple of days later. He recovered quickly and thought he was in the clear, but a more serious stroke hit about a month later.

“The first stroke wasn’t so bad. In fact, I came back from that pretty quickly,” Tierney said. “But then, when I had the second one, it slowed me down quite a bit.”

Although it sometimes takes him a few moments to collect his thoughts, Tierney can now speak clearly. With help from friends, he’s taking care of himself at his Portsmouth home while undergoing physical therapy and getting treatment at York Hospital. But he still has trouble controlling the entire left side of his body. He can’t drive or manipulate a computer or play guitar, and he can’t work at the studio.

“I’m not able to work, just because I’ve kind of forgotten everything I knew, just by the nature of the stroke,” he said. “I can speak fairly well, but as far as remembering how did I do that, I’m not able to right now.”

Tierney’s partner at The Electric Cave, Marc McElroy, continues to operate the studio, located in The Button Factory on Islington Street. But Tierney is still staring at a mountain of bills, “medical expenses that I’ll never be able to pay off, to be honest,” he said. D’Amour hopes his upcoming release show and subsequent CD sales will help put a dent in those expenses. 

Tierney plans to attend the show on Saturday for as long as he can. And, as his health improves, he hopes to get back to work at The Cave. Setbacks aside, he does not intend to stay away from the studio for long.

“It’s what I do,” he said.

Thomas D’Amour’s CD release show begins at 8 p.m. on Dec. 17 at 236 Union St. in Portsmouth. The cover charge is $10, with all proceeds going to Jim Tierney. For more information, visit www.thomasdamour.com or find him on Facebook.