If you've never had the chance to hear Tommy Womack, I implore you to do so and I'm here to meet you halfway. If you like it honest and real, if you like Dylan, Steve Earle, CCR, southern rock, roots rock, Americana etc. you're probably going to love Tommy Womack. Actually if you're a carbon based form of life with an intact IQ with both hemispheres firing, you're probably going to love Tommy Womack. He's been around for awhile and if you want to learn more about him, check out his website here. I was introduced to him via the obner board where there was a massive mix project (the "tenner" series, put together 10 tracks from some of your favourite artists as for an introduction to their work) and this fellow put together one for Tommy. I think after I played it a single time I was immediately in love with this dude's music. I immediately went and bought everthing he'd released as a solo artist and then from the Bis-quits. I've never been able to track down anything from Government Cheese but from what I can gather, this fall we'll see some re-releases of those older records. And in my opinion, he's getting better over time. His last record may be my favourite (There I Said It), which contains possibly the greatest song in the history of the universe. 'Alpha Male and the Canine History Blood'. A wise man said, once this songs starts you HAVE to let it finish the whole way through. Also, I also liked what he has to say in general, from interviews that I've read. This quote speaks volumes, when he was pressed if he felt screwed over by the record industry in a Nashville interview:
“If anybody has not been screwed over by the music industry, it’s me. I've had chance after chance, one at-bat after another. Nobody ever twisted my arm and made me get drunk before going onstage. No one made me do a show stoned. No one made me run at the mouth at the microphone not knowing what my point was. And, in the long run, I never gave the music industry a song it could use. Commercial is not a bad thing. The Sermon on the Mount is commercial. But what did I do? I gave the machine an eight-minute-long song about The Replacements.”
Hell yeah! So I've bundled a 10 of my favourite Tommy Womack songs here and added one bonus track from Daddy (Will Kimbrough & Tommy Womack), which Tommy had been performing solo before appearing on Daddy's For a Second Time album. Check them out, I practically guarantee a better mood because of it. And then hit iTunes and buy the goddamn albums, there's plenty more good stuff to here from him solo or as part of Daddy.
1. Betty Was Black (and willie was White)
2. If That's All There is To See
3. Tough
4. The Highway's Coming
5. 25 Years Ago
6. You Could Be At the Beach Right Now
7. I'm Never Gonna Be a Rock Star
8. The Replacements
9. I Want A Cigarette
10. The Ballad of Martin Luther King
11. Alpha Male & the Canine Mystery Blood
