Search - Tommy Womack :: Positively Na Na

Most entertaining collection of songs I've heard in years!

08/30/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A seasoned music fan well into my fourth generation, I have come to accept that the best of cutting-edge music is never going to be heard on the radio. That's why I was so blown away when I heard Tommy Womack's song "Skinny and Small", off the Positively Na Na CD, on my local public radio affiliate, WNCW, out of Spindale, NC. After trying several record stores w/o being able to convice the clerks that I wasn't looking for "Bobby" Womack, I finally located the CD and sat down for the most entertaining forty minutes of bluesey, rocking, country-fied fun that an un-hip southern white boy can hope to have past his 40th birthday. Womack's distinctive voice, clever, often hilarious, lyrics, and straightfoward arranging/recording style make it possible, with enough wattage and cold beer in your respective systems, to close your eyes and imagine you're in an off-the-beaten-path Nashville music hall enjoying the real neo-country roots revival that is cranking out the finest underground music since punk splattered itself on the big-city music scenes of London and New York. Womack alternately pokes good-natured fun at over-sexed Yuppies: "he's one of those guys whose hair never dries" on "A Little Bit of Sex"; Gays: "they're gonna drink that boy out of the closet tonight" on "Johnny Bought a Ring" to addressing painfully poignant real-life issues in his confrontation with a junkie acquaintance in "Ill Give You Needles", the best raw ballad I've heard since Steve Earle's "Billy Austin". (and it won't blow out your bass speakers) So, if you're looking for slick pop-country pablum, don't stop here. But if you want what I consider the best ''sleeper" CD of 1998, do like Tommy Womack says in his book "Cheese Chronicles": "... hitch (y)our sled to the rock and roll dream ... grab the whip and yee-the-hell-hah!""

Get Your Na-Na's Out with Tommy Womack

06/08/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Positively Na Na" is one of my favorite punk albums (my wife swears it's country music), but I know better!!! There is some excellent dobro, banjo and pedal steel fretwork that does give the album a country-tinged feel, reminiscent of "Exile on Main Street"-era Rolling Stones. Tommy Womack's lyrics (as could only be written by someone raised in Madisonville, Kentucky) are always funny, sometimes sad, and the bouncy tunes keep me humming along as I drive my car heading south with an Oreo Blizzard between my thighs and "Sheila's on the Road" coming out of the speakers. And, the album includes an old Government Cheese-era chestnut, "Skinny and Small," an uproarious nerd-revenge classic that was darn funny in 1987 and still is funny today. I see Womack as an emerging Nashville songwriter, and country and rock artists should consider covering his witty, clever, and catchy songs."

Tommy Womack gets skinny and small and rocks y'all

07/30/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"POSITIVELY NA NA pulls off a rare feat -- it's both witty and wise, often within the same line. Tommy Womack's collection of songs about local weirdos, sweet hitchhikers, and revenge-minded skinny and small folk, manages to rock like STICKY FINGERS-era Stones yet has the insight and compassion of Ray Davies' finest work. The title track captures perfectly the lament of the aging music fan, and a tear wells up in my eye every time I hear Tommy sing "Who keeps up with bands?" Miles Bob says four stars, and while you're here, pick up Tommy's tome THE CHEESE CHRONICLES over on the book side of Amazon.com."