Filed under: News
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I had a lot to be thankful for this year. I’ll try and run it all down in chorological order, the recent fortunate events at least.
On Thursday, November 15th, The Tommy Womack Band track “Tough” from the “Washington DC” release, was played almost in its entirety in two different scenes of “All My Children.” About a month ago, “Sweet Hitchhiker” from the same release showed up in the show as well. Date unknown for the first one. I haven’t seen it, but I’ve seen the Nov. 15th episode and just kinda shook my head in amazement watching it. Yep, I marveled, that’s my tune! In a by-gosh soap opera!
On Saturday afternoon, I was interviewed on the GAC (Great American Country) video channel.
On Saturday night, November 17th, I had the best birthday party of my life. I played with my band and a slew of special guests at the Mercy Lounge. Thanks much to Mary Sack, Jenn Brinn and my lovely wife Beth for their help with the decorations (and their schemes to get me out of the club after sound check so they could do it before the show!) Muchas magnanimous graciases (is that a plural of gracias?) to all the performers: my fellow Scorpio and harmonic main lady Lisa Gray, Warner Hodges, Jonell Mosser, Marshall Chapman, Fenner Castner, Bill Lloyd, Dan Seymour, Johnny Thompson and Paul Slivka. And thanks to Ned Van Go for a great opening set. It’s unbelievable how long I’ve known those guys now. Make new friends, keep the old, one is silver and the other’s gold.
The blessings keep coming! I’ve been invited to be an official act in the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas in March! You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out I was accepted to SXSW. I just didn’t expect such a coup as that. I’m three for three now: did the Americana Music Association earlier this month as an invited showcase act, likewise have gotten a similar invitation to go to Memphis and play the Folk Alliance conference in February. And now SXSW! Somebody up there likes me.
The Government Cheese re-issue project is making progress. Thanks to longtime Cheesehead Steve Broderson of Lexington, Kentucky. After months of searching, he located a functioning ¾” videotape player, which is an ancient machine now but was the industry standard back in the Cheese era, and the format in which almost all our videos existed in. They’ve now been transferred over into modern digital formats. I’ve been in touch with another longtime Cheesehead pal, Michael Romanowski, regarding mastering the final sequence of tracks. I really appreciate all your patience in this long-running project, especially you contributors! It’s been a mixed blessing for the Cheese project that I’ve been having the success I’ve enjoyed in ’07 but which has kept me from concentrating on the re-issue. Rest assured however, there will be Cheese in ’08!
Assuming you celebrate Thanksgiving where you are, I certainly hope you had a happy one. Mine was really good. We got Mom out of the nursing home long enough to come home and have dinner with the family and that was great. Boy, she looks better than she did a month ago when we found the nursing home, toured it and then put her in it. That was mid October. I’d only been home from England a day when I got called up to Kentucky to help look after her because my sibs were worn out. Mom was in a bad way then and the difference now is night and day. The best part of all? She likes the nursing home. She likes the food and says the nurses are as sweet as pie. Someone joked (?) to Mom at the home that they have only one patient there, because Mom gets so much attention from the nurses. I can understand that. It’s not that she’s high-maintenance, quite the opposite actually. She always wants to do for herself to the point that anyone who does anything for her gets thanked within an inch of their lives. You get Mom a drink of water and she’ll write you a thank-you note. What charm I have comes from her. I’m thankful for her, thankful for my family, thankful for all my friends, thankful for all the gigs I get to play, and thankful that kidney stone the doctor told me about a year ago hasn’t decided to do anything yet. That’s always something you can think about to comfort yourself. You can think “well, I’m in debt, the gutter spout is lying flat on the ground behind the house, the garbage disposal is clogged, but hey, my urethra’s not inflamed!”
Come see me at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, GA this Saturday the 1st with the great Malcolm Holcombe. If you’ve never experienced Malcolm, you need to.
God Bless,
Tommy