When I was a young college freshman at WKU Tommy Womack grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and pulled me into a bar right past the bouncer who was about to check my ID and discover that I was not, in fact, old enough get in and see Government Cheese. Tommy didn't know me. Maybe he had seen me at previous Cheese shows and thus, knew I was fan. I don't know. It was, however, one of the coolest damn things that had ever happened to me in my 18 years on this planet. In that moment, Tommy Womack, guitarist and vocalist for Bowling Green, Kentucky's very own Government Cheese, achieved rock god and damn fine human being status in my young alcohol-addled, weed smoke-filled frontal lobe.
That was almost 30 years ago and since then, Tommy Womack has become one of the finest songwriters in America. I've grown up listening to Tommy and from those early Cheese songs right up through his latest album “Namaste,” his music has been there, growing right along with me. Tommy writes songs that are sometimes deeply personal and sometimes deeply hilarious. Listen to his albums and you'll hear songs about his rock and roll heroes, getting older, Jesus, working shitty jobs, death, smoking cigarettes, growing up skinny and small, living in Nashville, and loving his family.
Some personal favorites of mine are “Positively Na Na,” about when you reach that age where you don't recognize most of the bands from the year-end reader's poll in Rolling Stone. “Nice Day,” gets me all misty-eyed and throat-lumpy. It's about going swimming with the family and hearing your son tell you he loves you...twice. “It Doesn't Have to Be That Good,” with the lyric, “No matter what your life is like, it beats the pants off death.” And from his latest album, “God, Pt. 3,” one of the best songs ever written about Jesus and “I Almost Died,” a brutally honest account of getting close enough to the Grim Reaper that you can feel his breathe on your neck. “Namaste” is one of this year's best albums. Listen to it and you'll hear a man giving thanks for his life by writing the best songs of his career. It's the sound of a man who refuses to just grow old gracefully, but recognizing that grace is there nonetheless.
Tommy Womack will be in Paducah this Saturday night at Paducah Beer Werks Showtime is 9pm. I'll be there. I hope you will, too.
