The world just lost Todd Snider, but Tommy Womack is still here.
The singer and guitarist may lack the stoner persona of his late pal and fellow Nashvillian, but they did share a kind of musical kinship, blending an unflinching, warts-and-all emotional honesty with observational wit and wise-guy charm.
And there is this: On the last song of his last album, released in October, Snider woozily exhorts: “Hey now, you got to live a little.” The title of Womack’s new album: Live a Little.
The title nods to the album’s ultimately uplifting spirit, even as it stares death in the face. The 63-year-old Womack has long found inspiration in his own life as an aging, just-getting-by roots-rocker. On Live a Little, helmed with typically unadorned but potent force by fellow artist and prolific Americana producer Eric Ambel, he looks at the past as well as the present.
