Nashville rock veteran Tommy Womack acknowledges using a little poetic license when it came to naming his new 42-song career retrospective, 30 Years Shot to Hell: An Anthology. “It’s actually 37 years, but that doesn’t roll off the tongue as well,” he says with a sly grin.
The anthology was set to be released in late 2021 by Schoolkids Records, the same label that released his most recent album of new material, I Thought I Was Fine. Production delays have pushed back the official release to a date TBA, but you can get a CD copy directly from Womack (who you can email for your copy at tommywomacklovesyou@gmail.com). A digital streaming release and vinyl will be available soon.
Correction: The print version of this story incorrectly indicates that 30 Years Shot to Hell has been officially released.
The two-disc collection is a testament not only to Womack’s staying power, but also to his brilliance as a songwriter and recording artist. It covers the entirety of his career, from his beginnings with the Bowling Green, Ky.-based indie-rock outfit Government Cheese and his time in the short-lived band The Bis-Quits through his two-decade-plus solo career and his work in the group Daddy.
“I put the running order together really quick,” Womack says. “I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to decide. I just went through the records and put on the ones I like.”
While all of his solo albums are well-represented, it’s clear Womack really likes three of those records in particular — more than half the tracks come from Positively Na Na (accounting for nine of the 42), There, I Said It! (seven) and Circus Town (six). On his decision to include all but two of the cuts from his 1998 solo debut Positively Na Na, he says, “I guess I did lean to that record a little bit because it’s not anywhere. It’s not on iTunes, it’s not available [on CD] — I’ve got like two copies of it, that’s it.”
30 Years Shot to Hell features much of Womack’s most revered material, including the poignant “I’ll Give You Needles,” the foreboding “I Don’t Have a Gun,” the transcendent “Alpha Male & the Canine Mystery Blood” and the still-far-too-relevant “Betty Was Black (& Willie Was White).” The last of those tracks originally appeared on Washington D.C., a live album featuring a particularly inspired performance by the Tommy Womack Band — Womack (electric guitar, lead vocals), Ken McMahan (electric guitar), Paul Slivka (bass) and Fenner Castner (drums) — for XM Satellite Radio recorded at their studios in the nation’s capital.
The collection also includes “Skinny & Small,” a song Womack almost never performs anymore due to its content. “I wrote it in 1985, and I used to do it all the time with the Cheese,” he says of the tongue-in-cheek song about getting revenge against his high school bullies. “The fact that I came back to town and shot all my old fellow students — that was funny in 1985 because nobody ever did that. Almost immediately after [my solo recording of the song came out in 1998], Columbine happened, and suddenly it wasn’t funny at all. If people yell for it and really want to hear it, I’ll do it. But as a matter of course, I just don’t play it anymore because it’s not funny.”
In addition to a wide selection of material from his solo records, 30 Years Shot to Hell features four cuts that Government Cheese — Womack (guitar, vocals), Scott Willis (guitar, vocals), Billy Mack Hill (bass, vocals) and Joe Elvis King (drums) — recorded in the late ’80s for Nashville-based indie-rock label Reptile Records. The anthology includes the title track from their 1987 EP C’mon Back to Bowling Green and Marry Me and three tracks from their 1989 album Live! Three Chords, No Waiting. The Cheese is set to perform at The Basement East on April 23, and according to Womack, they hope to release their new Brad Jones-produced album Love prior to that show.
The Bis-Quits — which featured Womack (guitar, bass, vocals), Will Kimbrough (guitar, vocals), Mike Grimes (bass, guitar, vocals) and Tommy Meyer (drums) — recorded one eponymous album released by John Prine’s Oh Boy label in 1993. Womack included one song from that album, “Cold Wind,” on the new collection.
Daddy is another group Womack co-founded with Kimbrough. They sometimes perform as a duo, but the full band — which includes John Deaderick on keys, Dave Jacques on bass and Paul Griffith on drums — is on the trio of tracks selected for the anthology. The swinging crowd favorite “Vicky Smith Blues” is among the three cuts included, all of which come from Daddy’s 2005 live debut At the Women’s Club.
In addition, the set includes one song never before released on CD, “Feel Beautiful.” “That’s the B-side of a single, ‘We’ll Get Through This Too,’ a Donald Trump song that I recorded with Doug Lancio,” Womack explains. “It’s never been on a CD, just a vinyl 45 7-inch.”
For Womack, there is a form of validation in Schoolkids Records’ decision to release the retrospective of his career. “As thrilled as I am with I Thought I Was Fine, and I’m really thrilled with how it’s done and how it’s been received, a bigger thrill is the anthology. I just sit there and look at the two discs, and I look at the list of songs — 42 friggin’ songs — and I go, ‘Well, maybe my life hasn’t been a waste; maybe it wasn’t 30 years shot to hell.’ ”
