Filed under: News
Thank you so much to all the DADDY fans who’ve ordered the promotional CD “Live At Norms”. You’ve made it possible to send the band to SXSW!
Now I have the (quite fun) task of personally illustrating over a hundred CD jackets. Will is doing some too, but I don’t expect him to be as prolific as me, mainly because it was my big mouth that put us in this position. ‘Every CD jacket a one-of-kind piece!’ I said. So it shall be, and I’ll be spending this weekend with my colored sharpies listening to Rolling Stones bootlegs and illustrating one jacket at a time, at a brisk, Warholian pace, in order to meet shipping deadline Monday.
Thank you to Mary Sack for all her help getting DADDY together in every way, to Michael Romanowski for doing such a wonderful, Sun Records-ish mastering job, and to Jessica Kimbrough for her help with the accounting, and for serving that fizzy orange juice I like.
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I’ve been writing songs with Jason & the Scorchers (including some inspiring co-writing with Ginger from the Wildhearts, who’s as big an old Scorchers nut as I am). They’re getting set to cut their first disc of new material in 12 years next month. Even better, Brad Jones is producing. It’s a win-win. I have – I think – 5 co-writes in the hopper with them right now, but I lose count sometimes when we write as much as we’ve been writing together.
Most of you know my story, I think. The Scorchers changed my life in January 1983 when I saw them downtown at Cantrell’s. If you’d told me then that someday I’d be sitting at Warner Hodges’ kitchen table drinking coffee and swapping riffs, I simply wouldn’t have believed you. Good things like that don’t happen to people like me, I would have told you then. Their music has been such a part of me for so long that the notion that, now, MY music is part of THEM??!!… It’s just hard to fathom sometimes.
I write with them again next week, after I’ve illustrated my requisite buttload of CD sleeves.
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Tomorrow (Saturday) evening, Beth and I are going to be at THE hottest ticket event in Nashville: Grimey’s wedding. Yes, Michael Jude Grimes is marrying his sweet Mindy. Everyone who’s anyone will be there. To see it. To watch Grimey’s lips actually blurt “I do” over the sweet shiny whine of ice-skating in hell.
As we say in Western Kentucky (where Grimey and I both hail from) – Mazeltov, Grimey and Mindy!
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I had a great time with Pat Ballard at WFMW in my hometown of Madisonville this afternoon. I look forward to playing Blackwell’s again this coming Tuesday, and I’m also stoked about flying up to Michigan for two dates next weekend. Gigs. They’re nice things to have. I’ve been doing this too long not have noticed a correlation between playing gigs and bringing Beth money later. That makes her happy too. And when Beth’s happy, I’m happy.
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A big thank you to Mackenzi Johnson for the job lead! It actually led to an interview! It’s been a week now since I put on my dead man’s suit and brushed my teeth and did that interview, so my hopes are fading a little bit, but hey, an interview’s and interview, and it happened because I wear my blog on my sleeve. That’s why I roll the way I do.
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Nathan’s music teacher has encouraged us to apply him for a music scholarship that’s offered by the city. My boy. He’s quite the musician. As a drummer, our latest jams-of-choice have been “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?” and “Honky Tonk Women.” As a baritone horn player, he’s getting more and more fluid. He’s also playing handbells at church. I’m very proud of him. I mean, show me another 10 year old kid who takes out the high hat when he hits the snare, just like Charlie Watts! I can’t do it myself, but he can.
He’s also turned into a voracious reader. He’s halfway through the sixth Harry Potter book right now.
You know how we all get goo-goo-eyed when we see a cute baby in a restaurant or the grocery store? You can stare at that baby all day long, there’s nothing more beautiful. But when you see a kid out in public who’s ten like Nathan is, you don’t necessarily think he or she is so beautiful anymore. That’s normal, I suppose, but it’s different when it’s your own kid. I can look at Nathan all day long, and I still see that little baby he once was at the same time that I see him as he is now. Sometimes Beth and I just get verklempt and mouth “I just love him!” to each other.
The other day, he asked me if it was a special way the groom kisses the bride that causes the woman to have a baby. Then in practically the same breath he asked for an advance on his allowance, so he could buy some Pokemon crap. He never came back to the first question again. It’s like he never asked it. He hasn’t brought it up since either. Maybe I should just give him my old paperback copy of “The Godfather”. That’s how I learned.
God bless, stay warm, stay strong and love somebody,
Tommy
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