Tommy Womack – we’ve seen Tommy several times in Huntsville, AL. Usually solo, but Thursday before last he was there with his band, and the release of a new professionally produced CD “There, I said it”. Tommy’s a poet; he plays ’em country-blues-rock style, but every song an autobiographical social-comment story, linked by more stories between numbers. Plenty of words and word-play, and every one enunciated discernibly through his tortured croaky voice – the words about his life-lessons and family matter. This time with his band – good to hear Tommy on electric guitar (Keith Richards maybe – read his style / influences on his web site); plus a tight comfortable rhythm section – and the wonderful additional voice of Lisa Gray (puts me in mind of The Beautiful South’s Alison Wheeler.) Good luck with the CD Tommy – I’m playing it to death in the car at the moment.
Love of Diagrams – caught this Melbourne trio at the ArtRocker in Highbury, London last Tuesday. Glad I did. Bassist / lead-vocalist somewhere between the Slits and Siouxsie, and a great bassist to boot; female drummer too, probably the distinctive feature of the band – really tight on a very sparse kit – excellent. Interesting manic noises and vocals added by the token male guitarist. Interesting, if not more so. (Must look out for their southern US gigs in the next few weeks.)
The Hamsters do the “Jimi gets his bus-pass” tour – one of relatively few all-Hendrix gigs The Hamsters do these days, seen at The Brook, Southampton on Thursday. The 65th birthday tribute involved two long sets, not quite the full repertoire – technically really well done by Slim with as much feedback as anyone can reasonably control and then some, as we have come to expect, but somehow a little low-key due to below-par audience participation I’d guess.
Oh, and how could I forget – bumped into Frank McAvennie in the car park – of Southampton Airport, station just before the gig.