Tommy Womack "On & Off the Wagon"

Tommy Womack is a wordsmith. Pure and simple. Well, actually there is nothing simple about Tommy...pure and complex! How is that? The words manifest in all different kinds of ways. There are songs, some delivered solo, and some with bands current and past; in reverse order with DADDY, The Bis-quits, and Government Cheese. There are books, The Cheese Chronicles, which is in my estimation one of the finest rock and roll books ever written; The Lavender Boys and Elsie, the collected civil war era letters of Albert and Elsie Deveraux which came out in 2008; and now we await an illustrated children's book to be published this year called Jack The Bunny. He has even contributed columns to Music Fog's website from time to time. His blog over on his website is a literate and illuminating glimpse into his life. From it, posted back in May:

"On Tuesday I got my second day of recording done for my next solo venture. John Deaderick and I – the same team who gave you There, I Said It! - are at it again. Expect a 2011 release for this one. (It makes no sense to rush these things anymore, does it.) Songs recorded so far: “On & Off The Wagon,” “Play That Cheap Trick, Cheap Trick Play,” “It Doesn’t Have to Be That God,” “Bye & Bye,” “Wishes Do Come True,” “Pothead Blues,” “I’m Too Old to Feel That Way Right Now,” “Darling Let Your Free Bird Fly,” “Guilty Snake Blues,” and “I Love You to Pieces."

Whoo-hoo! A new Tommy Womack CD is an well anticipated and wholly awesome thing to contemplate!

Tommy came up on the Music Fog bus this past February, at Folk Alliance, and brought Lisa Gray with him to lay down one of the above mentioned new tunes. Is this a song about sobriety, about being on the road, about marital fidelity, about the human condition? Answer, likely all of the above. A lot to stuff in, delivered in just two minutes and thirty-eight seconds! "On and Off the Wagon."

- Jessie Scott

Doug & Telisha Williams "Kitchen Light"

Lee Abrams was the Yoda of XM Radio. He planned the platform's diversity, understanding that there was no 'one size fits all' to the music; and that each channel needed to be authentic and the authority for the genre it represented. Then, after hiring the staff, he let the garden grow, so that there wasn't a corporate sameness to all the channels. When Lee announced he was leaving to return to the city he grew up in, Chicago, to join the Tribune Company as Chief Innovation Officer, we (the programming department) all cried as we wished him well. During his reign at XM, Lee, who started flying at age 17, used to round us up for Saturday flights to eat lunch somewhere, flying back to homebase afterwards. What was a weekend lark is now a TV show called Sky Dives on WGN. One Saturday, Lee took me for a Reuben sandwich in Morgantown, West Virginia. At least, that's where I think we went. I remember crossing the mountains west of DC. We flew VFR (visual flight rules), and we were low enough that you could see the towns and the hills and valleys as we flew over them. It was a daydream inducing thing, as one wonders what life is like in the hamlets. Flying over football fields, swimming pools, churches, forests; it is easy to romanticize. I am certain, however that life is tougher in those hills than it has been in a while. And they have known poverty all too well in the past, too. I read this amazing book a while ago, about the contributions made by people from Appalachia to the zeitgeist of America...The United States of Appalachia, How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment To America. I highly recommend it.

Photo Credit: Elizebeth LarsonDoug and Telisha Williams come from one of the towns I might have flown over with Lee, Martinsville, Virginia, where boarded up factories are an unfortunate fact of life, giving silent testament to the ebb and flow of bounty. The unemployment rate there is 20.2%. Ouch. Doug and Telisha chose to record their latest CD Ghost of the Knoxville Girl in their hometown. The songs weren’t written by people like me, flying over and trying to imagine what it’s like down there, instead they came from tales told by intimate friends and relatives. Keep it local, keep it close. There is no doubt that they draw from all they heard growing up in that rich landscape. They transport it well into today.

Doug and Telisha hit Arkansas to play the Fayetteville Roots Festival tomorrow. The rest of their dates can be found in the tour section of their website. Meanwhile, here we have a simple time weary tune of betrayal for you. Turning off the "Kitchen Light," from the Music Fog bus at Folk Alliance 2010 in Memphis.

- Jessie Scott

[From 2000 to 2008, Jessie Scott served as Program Director of X Country, a radio channel dedicated to Americana music, which was heard across North America on XM Satellite Radio.]

Phil Lee with Tom Mason "Les Debris, Ils Sont Blancs"

Have you ever been to New Orleans? I haven't been back since Katrina (and I gotta turn that around, yeah, you're right!), but for a while there I had been visiting every year. I would take my time to pick though The Quarter for treasures, taking in the sights and sounds, and the food, of course. One year, I hooked up with an old friend, Steve Popovich, who I knew from his long tenure doing promotion at Epic Records in New York. He took me to Mother's Restaurant for a debris sandwich. In this case, debris is defined as the meat that falls off the roast into the cooking juices and fat in the pan. We bought enough for our respective families back home. The cab ride back to the airport was accompanied by the overwhelming aroma, there wasn't a square inch of open space left. Yes, I need to go back!

Phil Lee came aboard the Music Fog bus in Memphis, at Folk Alliance 2010, with Tom Mason and performed a debris song of a different sort. I loosely translate it as "White Trash Girls," but then, it has been since high school for me and French. Feel free to chime in. What I do know is that before this song I never noticed that Phil Lee has a Kinky Friedman-like approach to music, as Kinky, too, would say anything, no matter how politically incorrect it was. And so does Phil. You gotta watch this video. Pay special attention to how Phil is dressed. Everything, all the time. "Les Debris, Ils Sont Blancs" is on the CD The Mighty King Of Love that Phil put out in 2000. Phil continues barnstorming through the south on the "I Saw Him Before He Died" tour.

- Jessie Scott