Tommy Womack Finds Peace on “Namaste”

Tommy Womack has been through the ringer over the last few years, and it seems he’s finally found some inner peace. Surviving a car crash and a debilitating drug addiction, Womack is all brutal honesty and reflection on his new record, the aptly titled Namaste. This ain’t no downer, though. Womack understands the importance of being able to laugh at himself, and he does it in cheeky, clever ways. With all of the darkness he’s experienced in his life, Namaste is a much needed source of light.

Womack’s voice is warm, with a little rasp, and even if you’re listening to it for the first time, has a bit of familiarity to it, like an old friend. Reteaming with longtime musical partner Will Kimbrough, who plays guitar on Namaste, Womack sounds truly comfortable and confident, at ease even when singing about hitting rock bottom. And rock bottom is expressed with the heaviest hand on “I Almost Died”, a vivid blues rock song that delves deep into the details of Womack’s brush with death after an overdose during which his heart actually stopped. Sung like a spoken word poem, it tracks a day in the life of Womack at his worst, from the mixing of drugs to the ambulance to the aftermath.

Womack faces other hardships on Namaste, too, including his battle with hair loss. “Comb-Over Blues” is a straight forward blues jam about how much it sucks to go bald, despite the inevitability of genetics. “Happened to my pappy/Happened to my pop/Take it all from one side/Sweep it ‘cross the top,” he sings. As with every Womack song, the lyrical rhyming is some of the best you’ll ever hear.

“It’s Been All Over Before” is one of Namaste’s sweetest pop tunes about the redundancy of failed relationships, and “Hot Flash Woman” is a trippy, mod tune about menopause. Really. Womack doesn’t seem to ever show any self-consciousness. His songwriting is brilliant because it is unconcerned with self-consciousness. He’s honest, funny, raw and weird. And with Namaste, he’s more alive than ever before.