Thomas Wolfe said you can't go home again. But try telling that to Chicagoan Al Rose, a University alumnus and musician/ vocalist who will play highlights from his CD debut, Information Overload, at 9 p.m. this Friday in the Red Herring Coffeehouse.

Performing with Rose will be his five-piece band, the Transcendos, and special guest Andy Gricevich. But the night's distinction as homecoming king goes to none other than Rose himself, who graduated from the University with a degree in Economics back in 1980.

The guitarist, who hasn't been back to Champaign-Urbana since 1985, has fond memories of campus but said there's a distinct difference between the music scene back then and the one that fills local music venues, coffeehouses and airwaves nowadays.

"Locally, there was a little pocket of songwriters and bands that would play in the local clubs, but there wasn't anything too memorable," he said. "They were all into the country-rock that was popular back then."

Rose said he shied away from the club circuit and opted for the fresh air and green grass that the Quad had to offer. Usually during late morning or mid-afternoon, Rose - equipped with nothing more than his guitar and musical talent - let his creative juices run rampant.

It wasn't so much his musical artistry as his drive and ambition that eventually led him to performing in and running his own coffeehouse, Miles From Nowhere, in conjunction with the Residence Hall Association in the Florida Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue and Allen Hall Residence Halls.

During this time, he met up with one of the most important musical partners he has encountered during his music career, Dave Kay.

Kay and Rose worked together for about 10 years, performing as an acoustic duo billed as Dave & Al, although sometimes they would go by Al & Dave. Later, with the addition of Maury Smith, they played regularly as Three Story Brownstone.

During the time when designer jeans were hip and Rubik's Cubes were cool, Rose and his band worked the Champaign scene by playing at Mabel's around the time it first opened, as well as holding a weekly gig at Zorba's. But their style wasn't quite all their own.

"When you're young, you tend to emulate who you admire musically," he said. "When you're older, you hone in on your own style."

Nevertheless, it's not too hard to detect in his latest release the Bob Dylan and Neil Young influences that had been an important part of shaping his own musical style during his college years. Still, Rose successfully achieves his own uniqueness throughout the album.

Information Overload, on Whitehouse Records, is evidence that this musician's songwriting is a diverse mix of anything and everything from rock, pop, folk, country, gospel and jazz inflected with Latin rhythms and abundant energy.

Overload has garnered praise from even the Chicago Tribune, which described the album as "an irreverent stream of conscious- ness that plays off the rhythm of the words as much as their meaning."

One thing that's for sure, though, is that Rose is reluctant to label his sound as alternative. "It's more of an alternative to the alternative. 'Alternative' is more of a marketing term now and doesn't mean anything anymore."

"We tried calling it 'pigeonhole' music. Someone once gave it a description of Caffeinated Madness," Rose said. "I sort of like that."

And that's exactly what tonight's show is being billed as. "Caffeinated Madness," as he likes to characterize it, is intense rhythm with a lyrical in-your-face stream of consciousness.

Helping out in this madness is the core of the Transcendos, comprised of drummer/percussionist Heath Chappell, bassist Steve Hashimoto, guitarist Mike Smith and vocalists Laura Blye and Melinda Banks.

"I was looking for musicians who could take my music and 'transcend' what I had written." The Transcendos were envisioned as a large, versatile band with early lineups, including a pedal steel and keyboards. "It's a real organic process. The songs are the same, but the players dictate what sound you get that night. But it's always me and my songs."

Rose is also scheduled to show up and possibly perform this afternoon as Record Service, 621 E. Green St. Champaign, for a CD-signing session.