Tommy Womack - Positively Na Na (1998)

A long-time fixture of the Nashville area music scene – first as a member of the legendary Bowling Green, Kentucky band Govt. Cheese and later as a part of Will Kimbrough's vastly underrated band Bis-quits – Tommy Womack finally gets to flex his muscle and show off his stuff with a solo album. With Positively Na Na Womack scores an artistic bull's-eye.

Positively Na Na is a solid collection of country-flavored pop tunes that evince the same sort of quick wit and black humor that Womack showed in The Cheese Chronicles, his memoirs of life on the road with Govt. Cheese and possibly the best book ever written about rock & roll. Womack works with one foot firmly in the sort of roots rock practiced by Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty and the other foot in the same honky-tonk country that influenced folks like Jason & The Scorchers. Possessing a knack for story-telling, Womack pens intelligent, self-referential lyrics, the songs often dangling more than a few pop hooks from their infectious choruses.

Stand-out tracks on Positively Na Na include "Skinny & Small," the rightful revenge of every junior high non-jock; and Womack's ode to lost rockers, "Whatever Happened To Cheetah Chrome?" With a band that includes Nashville pop maestro Brad Jones (who also co-produced the disc), guitar wizard George Bradfute and the multi-talented Ross Rice, Womack pulls off with Positively Na Na that most difficult of tricks: a debut album that is as smart, likeable and entertaining as its creator. Far too talented for major label suits to recognize, Womack remains one of Nashville and the indie world's greatest secrets. (Checkered Past Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Positively Na Na from Amazon.com)