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From Government Cheese to Namaste: Tommy Womack on His More Than Three Decades in the Music Industry

Tommy Womack, Facebook

On Sounds Good, Tommy Womack reflects on his more than three decades in the music industry. Womack is a founding member of cult-favorite Bowling Green band Government Cheese. He then formed Nashville group the Bis-quits along with Will Kimbrough before beginning a solo career in 1998.

 

Womack was raised in Paducah from 1964 to 1966 between the ages of 4 and 6. He says he has some idyllic childhood memories of the town, especially watching the airport light go around at night across from his house.

After graduating Western Kentucky University, Womack and a group of friends formed Government Cheese which stayed together for 7 years. He says the band received the interest of several large labels but a bad record deal kept them from advancing to the national stage.

 

When Government Cheese broke up, Womack moved to Nashville and started playing in The Bis-quits with Will Kimbrough, who has played for the likes of Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, and Jimmy Buffett. He says the band performed for two years, during which they produced an album for John Prine’s Oh Boy Records.

 

After The Bis-quits broke up, the band's producer, Brad Jones, contacted Womack to record some of the songs they had not included on the album, launching Womack into a solo career. Womack has since produced 7 albums. In 2011, he released an anthology of Government Cheese songs. His most recent record, Namaste, was released this past June and is a reflection on his two near-death experiences, a drug overdose in 2007 and a car crash in 2015 that left him in a wheel chair for a month. Womack has been sober for four years and is mostly healed from the collision. He says he still performs with Government Cheese about once a year along with his solo gigs.

Tracy started working for WKMS in 1994 while attending Murray State University. After receiving his Bachelors and Masters degrees from MSU he was hired as Operations/Web/Sports Director in 2000. Tracy hosted All Things Considered from 2004-2012 and has served as host/producer of several music shows including Cafe Jazz, and Jazz Horizons. In 2001, Tracy revived Beyond The Edge, a legacy alternative music program that had been on hiatus for several years. Tracy was named Program Director in 2011 and created the midday music and conversation program Sounds Good in 2012 which he hosts Monday-Thursday. Tracy lives in Murray with his wife, son and daughter.
A proud native of Murray, Kentucky, Allison grew up roaming the forests of western Kentucky and visiting national parks across the country. She graduated in 2014 from Murray State University where she studied Environmental Sustainability, Television Production, and Spanish. She loves meeting new people, questioning everything, and dancing through the sun and the rain. She hopes to make a positive impact in this world several endeavors at a time.
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