The View On Pop Culture: Tommy Womack, Todd Snider, Will Hoge (2003)

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THE BEST OF NASHVILLE, 2003

Tommy Womack could easily be the poster child for Nashville’s non-country music scene. There’s enough Rolling Stones vibe coursing through his veins to make him persona non gratis among Music Row’s country label elite, and just enough twang in his voice to scare off all but the gutsiest rock radio programmers and label A&R people. As a result, this talented cult artist is slipping through the cracks and is in danger of becoming a footnote in the city’s musical history.

‘Tis a shame, too, ‘cause Womack is one of the brightest talents that the “Third Coast” has to offer. His self-released Washington D.C. was recorded last year in the nation’s capital, a live XM satellite radio broadcast beamed out into the universe with no second takes and no overdubs, just 54 minutes or straight-forward rock ‘n’ roll. A collection of songs culled from Womack’s three studio albums, along with the odd tune from previous bands (the bis-quits, Government Cheese); Washington D.C. is a perfect showcase for Womack’s songwriting skills and performance acumen.

The band that Womack assembled for the gig is a tight as a drum, with old friend Kenny McMahan providing a six-string counterpart to Womack’s imaginative fretwork. Womack’s music mixes roots rock and punkish intensity with Southern flavor, distilling it all into his unique trademark sound. It’s the lyrics that stand out, tho’, Womack’s world filled with saints and sinners, whores and virgins, his words drenched with passion, rage, insight, and humor. Tunes like “Betty Was Black (& Willie Was White)” and “I Don’t Have A Gun” tackle racism and hypocrisy while “Fake It ‘Til You Make It” offers a helpful philosophy for life and “Up Memphis Blues” pays homage to the King. If you prefer your music to have an edgy intelligence and wit instead of mindless trendiness, you should grab a copy of Womack’s Washington D.C.

Tunesmith Todd Snider’s career resembles Womack’s in more ways than one. Snider is also an enormously gifted songwriter, adding brains and laughter to his material, and the two have shared the stage together, written songs together and both have struggled against a star-making machinery that has found them too honest, too unpredictable, and too unmarketable for prime time. Thankfully, John Prine’s Oh Boy Records continues to support Snider’s work, his latest – Near Truths and Hotel Rooms – a collection of live performances from the last year.

Much like Washington D.C. showcases Womack’s underrated abilities, so too does Near Truths and Hotel Rooms serve as a wonderful introduction to Snider’s folkish material. Whereas lighthearted, comedic tunes like the raucous “Beer Run” or the satirical “Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues” have earned Snider a reputation as alternative music’s court jester; his heavier fare reveals a darker, more serious side. Bittersweet tales like “Lonely Girl” or “I Spoke As A Child” illustrate a poet’s grasp of human complexity while story-songs like “Easy Money” or “D.B. Cooper” are realistic and insightful portrayals of the absurdity of life. Snider’s between-song stories and comments define his personality and are almost as interesting as his songs. With an acoustic guitar and a song, Snider has traveled the highways and back roads of America for over a decade. He has a lot of tales to tell, and Near Truths and Hotel Rooms will whet the appetite of any interested listener.

Will Hoge doesn’t bring the same pedigree or experience to his music as Womack or Snider, but he’s a young talent on the rise. Hoge’s major label affiliation hasn’t seemed to have watered down his music to any degree, Blackbird On A Lonely Wire (Atlantic Records) an exciting work by a rapidly maturing songwriter and performer. Hoge’s obvious musical heroes are giants like Springsteen, Dylan, John Fogerty, and John Lennon. Rather than wearing his influences on his sleeve, Hoge brings a fresh perspective to the table, combining super-charged rock with pop melodies and some of the finest romantic songwriting you’ve heard since the Magic Rat drove his sleek machine over the Jersey state line.

Romance is Hoge’s muse, whether it’s the flame of the moment that burns a little too hot, the bittersweet love that got away or the unrequited dream that never was. With the backing of a damn fine band that snaps and pops like a string of firecrackers, Hoge’s lovelorn lyrics and mournful vocals betray a weary heart. “Hey Tonight” will reduce all but the most jaded listener to tears while you can literally feel the heartache in “Secondhand Heart.” The thinly veiled jealousy and self-loathing that fills “Someone Else’s Baby” is painted with the skill of a Picasso. The album closes with the beautiful “Baby Girl,” a ballad with weeping pedal-steel guitar that has more in common with Roger McGuinn than Garth Brooks. There are half a dozen songs on Blackbird On A Lonely Wire that would sound great on the radio, preferably sandwiched between songs by Tommy Womack and Todd Snider.    

Chances are that you won’t hear Nashville’s best music on the radio, though. While the city’s “Music Row” continues to crank out country-fried pop divas and Stetson-topped, bluejean-clad male pseudo-traditionalists, the real talents are making records for obscure little indie labels and playing night after night to audiences that you can count on the fingers of your two hands. While artists like Womack, Snider, and Hoge follow their rock ‘n’ roll dreams, they toil alongside kindred spirits like Jason Ringenberg, Bill Lloyd, Threk Michaels, Donna Frost, Mark Aaron James and many more who have never found the acceptance and success that they so richly deserve. (View From The Hill, 2003)

The View On Pop Culture: Todd Snider, Tommy Womack, Jason Ringenberg (2002)

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When people think of the city of Nashville, their thoughts often turn to the Grand Ole Opry, Johnny Cash, or maybe even Garth Brooks. The shadow of the country music industry casts its net over everything in the city, from art to commerce. Few people outside of the southeast know that Nashville is the “Music City” in more ways than just Shania Twain and Alan Jackson. The city also has a thriving gospel music industry and a rap music community to rival such “Dirty South” hotspots as Atlanta and New Orleans.

Nashville has long been home to critically acclaimed rockers like Jason & the Scorchers, Webb Wilder, Bill Lloyd and Threk Michaels and is also the center of a growing “space music” community driven by artists like Aashid Himons, Tony Gerber, and Giles Reaves. No matter what style of music you enjoy, from dancefloor rhythms to heavy metal, from punk to folk to roots rock, the Music City has something for you. As a number of fine albums have recently been released by some of Nashville’s brightest talents, your humble columnist is overjoyed to offer readers the following “summer required listening list.” Pay attention…there will be a pop quiz in September.

A Nashvillian by way of Seattle, Austin and Memphis, singer/songwriter Todd Snider has so much talent and charisma that just his presence in the city makes every other artist work that much harder. After an artistically fruitful trip through the major label minefield that brought Snider some fame and little fortune, he has landed on John Prine’s Nashville label. As shown by New Connection (Oh Boy Records), it’s a good fit for both Snider and the label. A quirky songwriter with an eye for life’s absurdities and an imagination as long as his arm (much like Prine), Snider cranks out verbose story-songs that show a considerable amount of humor and intelligence. Whether Snider is bragging about his record collection on “Vinyl Records,” having a little fun on a “Beer Run” or playing the starving artist on “Broke,” Snider imbues his songs with life and energy, mixing folk and blues and rock-roots with just a little country twang. Regardless of whether he’s making you laugh, or making you cry with his songs, Todd Snider never fails to wring an emotional response out of his audience. For an artist, there is no greater praise...

A long-time fixture on Nashville’s rock scene, Tommy Womack was a member of southeastern cult bands Govt. Cheese and the Bis-Quits and is the writer of The Cheese Chronicles, the best book about being on the road with a rock band that you’ll ever read. A pair of excellent solo albums has established Womack as an individual talent on the rise. His third album, Circus Town (Sideburn Records) cements Womack’s reputation as one of the most insightful and entertaining rockers on the independent scene today. Much like Snider, Womack brings a lot of his own personality to his songs, sometimes funny/sometimes serious tunes that reveal and cherish the foibles of the human condition. “The Replacements” is a fond remembrance of and homage to one of the greatest (and sometimes the worst) live rock bands in history while “The Highway’s Coming” is a circular tale of sin and redemption. Songs like “You Can’t Get There From Here” or “Circus Town” have more in common lyrically with the Ramones than with Hank Williams, Womack adding elements of talking blues and traditional country to his punkish roots-rock blend. Unlike a lot of pop songwriters who write down to their audience, Tommy Womack demands that you join him on his level. Considering the lofty creative standard set by Circus Town, Womack has a lot to live up to next time around.

He might not like the description, but Jason Ringenberg is one of the influential graybeards of the Nashville rock scene. Country punk pioneers Jason & the Scorchers have been tearing up stages across the country and overseas for two decades now, helped give birth to the “alternative country” genre and spawned dozens of bands like Wilco and Whiskeytown. Ringenberg leans more towards the country side of the musical equation with his solo albums and All Over Creation (Yep Roc Records) may be his most inspired work yet. A collection of duets between Ringenberg, friends and followers, All Over Creation offers up a delightful mix of country classics and original material.

Jason revisits a Scorcher favorite with “Bible and A Gun,” turning it into a somber Civil War morality play in his duet with Steve Earle, and follows “James Dean’s Car” over the cliff with collaborator Todd Snider. With one foot in the honky tonk, Jason and BR5-49 provide Loretta Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)” with a lively reading while the critically acclaimed Lambchop back Ringenberg on a haunting tale of Irish immigrants, “Erin’s Seed.” Tommy Womack, Kristi Rose and Paul Burch are among the other artists adding their talents to All Over Creation, Ringenberg delivering an album that has more reckless country soul than anything that Nashville’s Music Row will release this year. (View From The Hill, July 2002)

Archive Review: Tommy Womack's Stubborn (2000)

After listening steadily to Tommy Womack’s debut album, Positively Ya-Ya, constantly for over a year I’ve finally figured it out, put my finger on Womack’s place in this great rock ‘n’ roll whatsis. The recent arrival of Stubborn, Womack’s brilliant sophomore effort, reinforces my conclusion: Tommy Womack is the new Harry Nielsen! Now, now, stay with me here – much like that maligned and often-overlooked pop genius, Womack is capable of performing in a number of musical genres, from rock and blues to country and everywhere in between.

Both artists write great songs with slightly skewed lyrical perspectives, and both have a keen eye for skilled sidemen. Whereas Nielsen would enter the studio with various Beatles in tow, Womack records with the cream of Nashville’s underrated rock music scene, talents like Will Kimbrough, George Bradfute, Mike Grimes, Ross Rice, and Brad Jones. Womack may have a more southern-fried perspective than Nielsen, but the parallels are obvious. 

Tommy Womack’s Stubborn

Womack’s Stubborn opens with the chaotic “Rubbermaid,” a short stream-of-consciousness rant similar to Captain Beefheart or John Trubee, backed by syncopated drums and flailing harmonica. It jumps from there right into “Up Memphis Blues,” an energetic rocker with a blues edge that includes some tasty slide guitar courtesy of Al Perkins. “Christian Rocker” is a hilarious interlude with fantastic imagery dropped in between songs while “I Don’t Have A Gun” is an angry blues tune featuring appropriately tortured vocals from Womack and some southern rock styled six-string work from Womack and George Bradfute.

“For The Battered,” a song from Womack’s old band and Southeast legends Govt. Cheese, is recycled here as an electric blues with some wicked, dark-hued slide guitar from Will Kimbrough supporting the story. It’s the most powerful musical statement that I’ve heard on domestic violence and I still get chills every time the asshole girlfriend beater’s karma catches up with him. Stubborn’s lone cover is of the Kink’s “Berkeley Mews,” a somewhat obscure Ray Davies gem offered here in a fairly straight-forward rendition that says as much about Womack’s sophisticated musical tastes as it does about his ability to pull the song off on record.

Intelligent Lyrical Bombs & Poetic Explosives

Most critics, when writing of Womack, praise his songwriting abilities, pointing out the numerous characters that live in his songs. They’re really missing Womack’s strongest skill, however – any hack can people their songs with junkies, whores, and ne’er-do-wells of various stripes (listen to any heavy metal lately?). Womack’s strength is in his composition of memorable lines, clever and intelligent lyrical bombs often thrown into the middle of songs to infect the listener’s consciousness days after hearing a song. Witness some of the poetic explosives hidden in the songs on Stubborn: “I’d crawl back in the womb right now if Jesus would show up and point the way.” “Gonna find me a woman who won’t fall apart on the witness stand.” “I want to be a Christian rocker but the devil’s got all the good drummers.” “She was a Presbyterian in a porno picture, tossing her values aside.” “You can all go straight to hell, you’d better cut and run, get on your knees and thank the lord that I don’t have a gun.”

It’s a skill that separates Womack from the mundane “Music Row” factory writers in Nashville even as it marginalizes him from the whitebread world of radio and mainstream music. It also shows his Southern heritage as religious tradition and rock ‘n’ roll yearnings clash for the soul of the songwriter with the resulting imagery creating some of rock’s best rhymes. Among southern rockers, only Jason & the Scorchers’ Jason Ringenburg and, perhaps, Alex Chilton match Womack word for word.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

The material and performances on Stubborn sound more confident, Womack’s talents sharply honed by a couple of years of live shows and collaborations with other artists. A gifted storyteller, an amazing songwriter and an energetic performer, Womack is one of Nashville’s best and brightest. Although an indie rocker in style and attitude, Womack’s work deserves the widest audience possible, distribution and promotion that only a major label could provide – if any of the corporate A&R geeks could get their collective heads out of their respective boss’ rear ends long enough to listen. Personally, as long as Womack gets to keep making records like Stubborn, I’ll be happy enough. (Sideburn Records, released February 22, 2000)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2000