Hi, you beautiful person, you!

I’m so sorry I’ve been delinquent in updating my site, but don’t worry. (Some of you worry when I go into website hibernation!) I’ve just been so darn busy that I haven’t had time to write much of it down. It’s been seven days a week in Tommyville lately. I’m going to summarize events in the news (from most recent to furthest back) and then I suggest you go to the new rant and read about it all in detail. Saves me typing that way. Here’s the headlines.

I had one of the greatest nights of my life last Thursday night. For the first time I got to play my songs for Rodney Crowell and I didn’t make a complete fool out of myself.

Daddy killed ‘em at the Suwannee Spring Fest two weekends ago. We followed Mavis Staples on the Amphitheater Stage Friday night and she dug us and hung out watching us.

I had a heavenly return to the Exit/In with my full band (including a reuniting with the great Kenny McMahan on guitar) opening for Cowboy Mouth two weeks back. It was great to be in the middle of a big noise on that great stage again.

The Lavendar Boys play is on track and I hope to bring it to Nashville for a production when everything’s written and ready. The book version is ready to go to press as soon as I tweak a few things: a word here, a comma there.

Okay, here’s the big one for the Cheeseheads. You might want to sit down for this one (but you probably are already being as you’re in front of a computer.) This is big.

About six weeks ago, I went over to Scott Tutt’s house and paid him some money and walked out with 27 tapes, everything Government Cheese ever recorded for Reptile Records from 1986 to 1989, audio and video. Scott Tutt was/is President of Reptile Records and owned the rights to all our Reptile stuff, including all the college-radio hits, until that night. Government Cheese now owns everything we ever recorded and comprehensive reissue plans (replete with outtakes and unreleased stuff) are already in the works. A DVD is in the works as well. Check out the rant for the story of my (really nice) reunion with the man and future plans for the Cheese. This has been a long time coming, and I’m very excited about it, as I’m sure a lot of Cheeseheads will be. All the Cheese stuff has been out of print for 12 years. And now we have what we need to set that right, and totally right, from the first note we ever recorded to the last gasp in ‘92. It’s a glorious page in Cheese history, acquiring the ownership to these recordings and I can’t wait to see them available again. To check out some Cheese video from 1992 at the Exit/In, click here.

Also in the rant are suggestions on how YOU, the Cheesehead, can help us get this thing together!

I’m looking forward to getting back into the studio on the next full moon to work more on my own new record. Sessions have been going great. And could somebody tell me when the next full moon is?

England is shaping up, with the distinct possibility of some dates in Italy too! I have a lot of good people helping me out in both countries right now.

Okay, enough of this. I’m burning the midnight oil. At least the darn site’s getting updated! I’m going to write the new rant now and go to bed.

God bless,

Tommy