How do! Tommy here. Thanks for visiting the website. I wish I could say I update it religiously, but it’s my aim to be better about that – just like my aim to return phone calls and shower more than twice a week.
So, what’s going on with my career at the moment? You tell me. It was a long winter of discontent, and I didn’t do much. I played what gigs came my way, I enjoyed the reaction to I Thought I Was Fine and 30 Years Shot to Hell, I had a good holiday season, I had great reunion gigs with both Government Cheese (closing down the Exit/In in November) and the Bis-Quits (celebrating the vinyl release of our record on John Prine’s Oh Boy label), had a great Thanksgiving weekend gig at the Bluebird with Matraca Berg and Gary Nicholson, I turned 60 onstage in November at 3rd & Lindsley while my gig was broadcast live on WRLT. I also had a great time emceeing the benefit show for Jim Reilley at 3rd & Lindsley. (He’s had his share of health problems recently.) I got to hang out with Vince Gill that night, which was a treat as I’d never met him before. He’s a nice guy – about as laid back as you can get without falling over.
I bought a lot of records, a lot of books, and more recently a lot of shirts, as my belly has made my old supply of T-shirts a little snug. I saw a lot of doctors too. I am sick to death of doctors. If it wasn’t the urologist for the bladder cancer, it was the ENT doc for sinus surgery, or the pulmonologist for the mild COPD I have (which I earned one cigarette at a time for many many years). There were also a couple of hospital stays: one for an intestinal blockage and another for dizziness. - I’m curious what my 60s bring. It wasn’t kind to my own parents; they had shitty golden years and I know that I either start doing push ups and taking walks or I’m going to wind up just like them.
Mortality has been close to the bone recently. We lost Peter Cooper just before Christmas. Peter was a great artist, a great writer, a great singer-songwriter, and a great example of why you should wear grippy-soled shoes in the bathroom so that you don’t fall and crack your noggin. So sad. I sang the shit out of “Nice Day” at a celebration of his life at the Country Music Hall of Fame in February. It was a profoundly spiritual night. Emmylou Harris sang, Buddy Miller, even Whisperin’ Bill Anderson. It was a treat to hang out with him.
My, a lot of that sounds depressing as hell there, doesn’t it? That first bit started off nice enough and then it all went to shit. Let’s stress here that my life is pretty good actually. My mood is pretty good – It should be. I take enough meds to stun a horse – and I have lots of friends who love me, and I like stepping out to nightclubs now and then to hug whichever ones I see.
Three gigs this week (May 3rd, 4th & 6th, check the calendar) One next week the 11th, although I have outpatient surgery that morning, so we’ll have to play that one by ear. A band show at East Side Bowl on the 26th of May. Then GOVERNMENT CHEESE & THE KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS In Bowling Green, June 10th, and then I get ready for my trip to CALIFORNIA the last week of June and the 1st week of July. I have house concerts in Fresno and San Jose on the weekend of 6/23,24, and house concerts in Velencia and LA the following weekend. Fans and friends are sending me suggestions on where and how to fill in the week, and thank you all for doing so. Please keep them coming. Hit me up at tommywomacklovesyou@gmail.com
And I guess that wraps it up for now. Come see me on facebook, facebook and Instagram, keep those cards and letters coming, and I’ll see you in the funny papers.
Peace and love,
Tommy