The main band in Nashville and some other towns: Me, guitar and vocals. Paul Slivka, bass and vocals. Fenner Castner, drums and vocals. Lisa Gray, vocals and acoustic guitar.
But I'm a man of many bands in many cities. In Birmingham, AL I play with Jay Johnson and Tommy Prewitt. In St. Louis I've played with a band and one of the guys name is John and that's all I remember other than it was a great gig. In Iowa I used David Zollo ..s and a great drummer who's another name that escapes me, but it was a great gig. In England, my band is Paddy Bradley, drums, Dougie Robertson, bass and John Barker, guitar. In New York I've used Will Rigby, drums, Mark Spencer on guitar and Scott Yoder on bass among others. In St. Paul one night Slim Dunlap of the Replacements was my backing band. In Italy one tour it was Enrico Catena, drums, Max D'Lago on bass and Elisabeth Cutler on guitar. I've literally walked onstage and met my musicians for that night right there on the stage. You'd think it's a recipe for disaster but I seem to have a knack for it. It's rock and roll, it ain't brain surgery. It always turns out great. The trick is to hold your guitar where the bass player can see what the chords are and lead the drummer with your ass, which in my case there ain't much ass to shake but I do my best with what I've got.
CONTACTS:
For distribution contact Thirty Tigers www.thirtytigers.com or www.myspace.com/thirtytigers
For label contact Cedar Creek Music at
http://www.cedarcreekmusic.com For booking, management & publicity contact Mary Sack at musicsack@comcast.net
Influences
Jesus. The Rolling Stones. Abraham Lincoln. Muddy Waters. Freedy Johnston. Ray Davies. Bob Dylan. Chuck Berry. Todd Snider. Will Kimbrough. Keith Richards. Bill Hicks. The Clash. John Lennon. Jason & the Scorchers. R.E.M. Bruce Springsteen. Robert Johnson. Cheap Trick. John Prine. The Velvet Underground. Del Amitri. Patti Smith. Randy Newman. John Hiatt. Dan Baird. Ronnie Van Zandt, Gary Rossington & Allen Collins. The Dictators. The Faces. Waylon Jennings. Elvis Presley. Johnny Cash. Richard Thompson. The Beatles. The Replacements. Eddie Arnold. Peter Buck. Willie Nelson. Steve Martin. Monty Python. Tom Robbins. Mark Twain. The Who. Merle Haggard. Thelonious Monk. Nick Lowe. N.R.B.Q. Stevie Ray Vaughn. Warner Hodges. The Kinks. Tom Littlefield & the Questionnaires. Jason Ringenberg. Led Zeppelin. Cary Hudson. Robbie Fulks. Jimmy Reed. Dale Carnegie. Norman Vincent Peale. The Monkees. Marshall Crenshaw. The New York Dolls. John Anderson. The Ramones. The Neighborhoods. Jonathan Richman. Lou Reed. Frank Sinatra. The Sonics. Dusty Springfield. Allen Ginsberg. D.T. Suzuki. Mom. Dad. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dolly Parton. Webb Wilder. Steve Earle. Joe Ely. Smokey Robinson. Steve Cropper. Stray Cats. Scotty Moore. Arlo Guthrie. Tom Wolfe. The Sex Pistols. Buck Owens. Southern Culture on the Skids. Eddie Cochran. Three Dog Night. Carl Perkins. Jerry Lee Lewis. The Happy Goodmans. Charlie Watts. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Ken Kesey. Carole King. Elvis Costello. Neil Young. Husker Du. James Taylor. Harry Truman. Joe King. Howlin' Wolf. Johnny Carson.
Sounds Like
I aim to pick up Bill Hicks' Cross and combine that with what Todd Snider and Steve Earle do. I put a guitar around my torso and aim for truth with a capital T and a lot of people come to see me just to hear what's going to come out of my mouth next, which is often as much a surprise to me as it is to them. That can make for great entertainment for an hour onstage but let me tell you it's no picnic having to be the guy who says all that stuff, all day every day. There's this popular myth that I'm some sort of iconoclastic lunatic who acts crazy and runs at the mouth and doesn't "see" himself the way everybody else does. Not true. I remember every great and terrible thing I've ever done on a stage and believe me I've done plenty of both. I'd give anything for one day a week of not being me, one morning a week where I can wake up and not be immediately embarrassed by something I said or did last night or ten years ago.
Oh yeah, what do I SOUND like? Well, I sound like a 44-year-old white guy who start out in punk and grew into a grizzled singer-songwriter with a bone up his ass, who's at least learned enough about singing to know what not to do. I write great lyrics even though I know they're secondary to the primary purpose of making you feel good. I play damn good rhythm guitar and pretty good Keith Richards-style slash and burn leads. That's the electric gigs. Most gigs are acoustic though (budget, you know) so on those gigs, on the acoustic guitar I'm really good about framing my voice with it, sometimes playing loud, sometimes barely breathing on the strings. Past that, I ain't no virtuoso, but I've got soul. I just try to put my emotions through my intrument and voice and make you feel good, and occasionally talk a blue streak that either makes you laugh out loud or pity me because I'm oviously an idiot who's beyond help.
I'm also real good about fitting into any band I get thrown into and making the band sound better (so if you ever need a guitar player...). My idea of Heaven on Earth is just playing rhythm guitar, locking in with the drummer, and letting somebody like Will Kimbrough play all the fancy shit while I just go to that trance place rhythm takes you to. As they say, I don't play my instrument; I play the song. As for a "format" of music I play. They call it Americana, or indie music. I call it country rock and roll blues with a lot of words. Let's have a contest. Comeup with a genre name for me. I'll pick the one I like and we'll start a trend.
Discography
Stubborn
Positively Na Na
Circus Town
Washington D.C.
Daddy- Live at the Women's Club
Government Cheese doing Somewhere Between
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Government Cheese doing Camping on Acid, Live at the Exit Inn 1992
Bio: (Quick edit up front. My new record is called "There, I Said It!' and is to be released February 20th, 2007. I'm a recording artist, published author and am known to be somewhat other than normal as the following essay will attest.)
My name is Tommy Glynn Womack. Skot Willis once said I was the craziest person hed ever met who had his life together. Todd Snider says Im the only person hes ever met in Nashville whos crazier than he is. So I must be crazy, I guess. I cant tell. Crazy for most folks must just be what normal feels like for me.
I make records, I write. I play shows. And being an artist of, shall we say, minor repute, I am also compelled to spend my Mondays through Fridays at a company that employs 18,000 people, maintains a zero-tolerance drugs and alcohol policy, and - thankfully for me so far - an apparent zero-enforcement of such. Hell, Id love them to piss-test me, actually; Ill walk in there with a fresh hot cup of urine and a fistfull of prescriptions and say "yeah, Im good for that, im good for that, and Im good for that! And as for THAT, well thats to keep me off the third-floor ledge of the building I work in, naked, with a spray-paint can in my hand and a whole lot to get off my chest!
More Facts! I live in Nashville, Tennessee, USA with my wife Beth, two cats, Pete & Shelley, and our beautiful boy Nathan.
From 1985 through 1992 I played in a band called Government Cheese.
From 1992 through 1994 I played in a band called the bis-quits.
In 1995, my book Cheese Chronicles: The True Story of a Rock and Roll Band Youve Never Heard Of was published.
I have two "hobbies." Firstly, I like to keep read about, and speculate on, the Historical Jesus, the real guy, who he really was, what he really said, etc. reading stuff by J.D. Crossan, A. N. Wilson and John Shelby Spong regarding such. Thats because I spent the first twenty-odd years of my life so deep in the Bible belt I didnt even know there was one. Jesus was on every wall of my house and oftentimes twice. I dont live much like that now, but needless to say it leaves its residual notions to be worked through in ones mind. If youd like my primary messiah pondering, click here. Otherwise, Ill trouble you no further with it.
Secondly, I boast a reasonably well-honed facility for classic-era New York Mafia Geneology: the Gambinos, the Genoveses, the Bonannos, the Lucheeses and the Columbos. I like keeping up with those guys, you know, scannning the papers, keeping up with whos in charge, whos been arrrested, whos been killed, etc. I dont know why, but I do so love to keep up with such matters. I can probably name you all the leaders of the Gambino Crime Family in order since its inception, from Albert Anastasia onward, and most of the other families as well, for that matter. If you care to gossip (about the retired ones, thanks), e-mail me.
--Tommy Womack
Tommy has been focusing on his solo career recently. You can catch him either solo or with his trio. Tommy also has an exciting new band with Will Kimbrough called Daddy. Nashville greats Dave Jaques, Paul Griffin, and John Deadrick round out the band. You can also catch Tommy ocassionally playing guitar or bass with Todd Snider and the Nevous Wrecks.
New t-shirts and more merchandise are now available on the Cedar Creek Music website through CCNOW!
If you have Bipolar Disorder or know someone who does, visit Bipolar Initiation, where over 40 years of living with this condition reveals a startling new way to perceive the experience.
And if you’re a romantic like we are, you won’t want to miss Twin Souls, the blog my wife and I write to each other, where we openly express our love.
Still lovin your latest record - let's bring that shit on up here to Michigan-Can you have Mary call or whoevr...I'll work something out. Craig Carrick -
This month we have Regina Spektor with the theme to the film Prince Caspian (but don’t let that put you off, it is really rather wonderful), Mermaid Skeletons with a great song that’s worth it for the chorus alone, the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir, who are as good as their name if not more so and finally the legendary Chip Taylor with the thought-provoking Former American Soldier. Great listening, and if you like the tracks, buy the albums!
