October 15 – Acclaimed Nashville indie-rock singer-songwriter Tommy Womack releases “Just Another Shooting” produced by Eric “Roscoe” Ambel. Intentionally provocative and unapologetically sardonic, this single serves as the perfect introduction to his upcoming album. Scheduled for a December 5th release, Live a Little reminds us that every moment is precious.
The 11-track album is written from the perspective of an older, wiser guy; someone who has lived and learned and grown, as a person and as an artist. Ambel calls it a “reflective record,” and while Womack may be in a reflective mood, it doesn’t blunt his artistic edge, which is honed with irony and humor. One of the best examples of Womack’s use of irony is the album’s most powerful song, “Just Another Shooting,” which he wrote in the aftermath of the 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville.
“It’s one thing to see it on the television week after week, then it happens at home, and for some stupid reason, it means more when it happens at home,” he says.
Finishing the song was a high point during the sessions for Womack. “The most memorable moment for me was hearing ‘Just Another Shooting’ come through the speakers with the vocals done and everything,” he recalls. “I can’t picture people listening to that without being affected somehow.”
The song is written from the point of view of a hardcore gun owner. Womack emphasizes that the lyrics are meant to be taken ironically, describing the narrator as, “the kind of guy who likes his picture made carrying his AR-15. It’s also about every damn American. My countrymen. A shooting happens, the left all look down, shake their heads and whisper “ah, jeez” and the right jump up and down about how all our freedoms are at stake if you take away our God-given right to show up to work with an automatic rifle and spray the room. I hope this song will offer some strange comfort to some people and make other people want to kick my ass.”
Live a Little is Womack’s ninth solo album, and it is arguably his best. As usual, he offsets the heavier songs with humorous ones as he explores the full expanse of life, both dying and living. He’s a deep thinker. The son of a preacher, he is comfortable writing about uncomfortable subjects — from the embarrassing to the fatal. Life isn’t fair, as he notes several times, and while “God answers every prayer, sometimes the answer’s no.”
Womack recorded the album at Ambel’s Brooklyn studio Cowboy Technical Services. They began discussing recording together after a tribute concert in New York for Ambel’s late Del-Lords’ bandmate Scott Kempner in February 2024. Kempner had recorded Womack’s song “I’ll Give You Needles” on his 2008 album Saving Grace.
“We started talking about making a record together, and him coming up and doing it with me and my guys,” Ambel recalls. “He sent me what I like, just solo acoustic demos, and I got those to the guys so they could learn the songs without hearing somebody else’s parts.”
The band assembled by Ambel includes bassist Jeremy Chatzky and drummer Kenny Soule, who anchored the rhythm section. Womack played acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica and mandolin, and Ambel contributed electric guitar, keyboards and backing vocals. Mario Vieli played guitar on “A Little Help Here!” and engineered the Brooklyn sessions. Peter “Wet Dawg” Gordon also added piano to a couple of tracks. They recorded the 11 songs over a week’s time in August 2024 with some additional overdubs done later, including vocal overdubs by Lisa Oliver-Gray, Womack’s longtime backing vocalist, which were recorded remotely in Nashville.
LISTEN HERE!: https://linktr.ee/tommywomack2025
Catch Tommy on Tour
October 23rd Star Community Bar, Atlanta, GA
October 24th The Village Goat, Rock Spring, GA
October 25th Signal Mountain Songwriters Festival, Signal Mountain, TN
November 20th Dee’s, Madison, TN – TOMMY WOMACK & THE RUINS -TOMMY & LISA’S BIRTHDAY GIG
November 7th 3rd & Lindsley, Nashville, TN – WMOT’s Finally Friday
December 5th 5-Spot, Nashville, TN – GET BEHIND THE MULE
December 8th Lucinda’s, NYC, NY – RECORD RELEASE PARTY –
TOMMY WOMACK FEATURING ERIC AMBEL, KENNY SOULE & JEREMY CHATZKY
December 12th Liquid Smoke, Murfreesboro, TN – RECORD RELEASE PARTY
December 13th 5-Spot, Nashville, TN – TOMMY WOMACK & THE RUINS RECORD RELEASE PARTY
December 19th The White Squirrel, Bowling Green, KY – TOMMY WOMACK & THE RUINS RECORD RELEASE
Live A Little
1 Speed, Weed & Alcohol
2 I Guess We’re At That Age
3 Waiting For the Punchline
4 Ten Feet Tall
5 Hoboken
6 Just Another Shooting
7 If I Could, I’d Pay Your Pain to Go Away
8 Underneath the Water Tower Again
9 A Little Help Here!
10 Horny Mormon
11 Funeral Girl
Preorder LP: https://schoolkidsrecords.tuneportals.com/UPC/634457234185
Preorder CD: https://schoolkidsrecords.tuneportals.com/UPC/634457234192
For more information, check out Tommy’s website at tommywomack.com
