I’ve written an article on Dan Baird’s great new band and you can read it here. Enjoy! And have a lovely Monday, if that’s possible.
God bless,
Tommy

I had an invasive procedure this morning – nothing serious, all is well - but they shot me full of something I’ve never had before, called Versed, so I wouldn’t remember anything. And now, hours later, I’m still forgetting about %50 more of life as it happens than is my mean average. It’s also like my nervous system has split off into two gladiators: Valiumus versus Caffieneus. I’m very jumpy, but if I tried to punch you in the face right now, my arm would flop out and hang to my side like a towel.

Therefore, I must blog. Artist’s credo: never waste a buzz, whether it’s a good one or a bad one. And that’s today’s headlines on the Tommy Womack Too Much Information Network.

Daddy (Will Kimbrough & Tommy Womack) will be in the house – in duo form, with special guest Lisa Gray - at the Tennessee State Museum for a live TV taping Friday. “Jammin’ at Hippie Jack’s” is the show and it runs on a slew of PBS stations, so watch for it in the future, assuming I’m nowhere near as drugged up on Friday as I am right now and don’t show up. Doors at 6, show at 6:30 ?& admission is free! Here’s a web link. http://www.tnmuseum.org/custpage.cfm/frm/50767/sec_id/50767

Mark Wayne Adams, an award-winning childrens’ book illustrator, is collaborating with me now to publish “Jack The Bunny” (my first-ever book without profanity). We hope to have it out rather soon, too. Like April or May. I’m doing the Southern Kentucky Book Festival on April 17th on WKU’s campus in Bowling Green, Kentucky, reading from “The Lavender Boys & Elsie” and certainly having something of “Jack The Bunny” to show, a preview poster if not the book itself. I’ll be appearing on a panel with the most awesome Marshall Chapman (tallgirl.com) and there’s talk of us playing a gig together the night before in Bowling Green as well, which would be a hoot.

I’m excited about being a childrens’ book author. It smacks of a most efficient and thorough manner of molding young brains when they are at their most nubile and tender, he said, rubbing his hands together and groaning his villainous laugh.

I’m opening for the great Kevn Kinney (of Drivin’ & Cryin’ fame) on January 30th, in Chattanooga TN. Kevn’s made a lot of great records, with his band and on his own. When you hear his voice, you know it’s him. That’ll be fun. I’m guessing I’m on at 7.

Leadership Music is a blast. A lot to take in, but a blast. We meet once a month for a day, and I mean a day – 7 AM to 7:30 PM. One of our functions this past Friday was at RCA Studio B, a place in which, in 25 years around this town, I have never ever been inside before. It was a thrill to see the piano that “Heartbreak Hotel” came out of, and look at all the mixing boards and tape machines that all that music came through, and see the corner of the room where Elvis stood to deliver classic after classic performance, jacked on Pepsi and Elvisness.

Scott “Broma” Davis, of Government Cheese soundman fame and fortune, has digitized a bunch of old live Government Cheese performances which I’m going to dig into just as soon as I’m able to remember things again. People are also popping up on the web with old posters scanned and photos posted, so there should be a bounty of sounds and images to make into a pretty package this autumn.

September will be the 25th anniversary of Government Cheese’s debut EP “Things Are More Like They Are Now Than They’ve Ever Been Before”. Ideally, everything will coalesce, reissue-wise around that anniversary, including – if I can crank it out in time – “Cheese Chronicles: The Audiobook”, a tome you can crank up loud enough to scald grandma.

But do you know what my most exciting project right now is? The Pillsbury cinnamon rolls Beth put in the oven about ten minutes ago. I’m about to have a doped-up sugar orgy. She’s waiting on me because my walking is not so hot and I’m thinking I might not even remember I wrote this later.

I hope you’re well, hope you can come to a show sometime or drop me a line, it’s always a pleasure. So, to mash up Garrison Keillor and Steve Martin – Be well, do good work, be oblong & have your knees removed.
Tommy