Article Contributed by September Gurl Music
Published on October 16, 2025
Acclaimed Nashville indie-rock singer-songwriter Tommy Womack releases “Just Another Shooting,” produced by Eric “Roscoe” Ambel. Intentionally provocative and unapologetically sardonic, this single serves as the perfect introduction to his upcoming album. Scheduled for a December 5 release, Live a Little reminds us that every moment is precious.
The 11-track album is written from the perspective of an older, wiser guy; someone who has lived and learned and grown, as a person and as an artist. Ambel calls it a “reflective record,” and while Womack may be in a reflective mood, it doesn’t blunt his artistic edge, which is honed with irony and humor. One of the best examples of Womack’s use of irony is the album’s most powerful song, “Just Another Shooting,” which he wrote in the aftermath of the 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville.
“It’s one thing to see it on the television week after week, then it happens at home, and for some stupid reason, it means more when it happens at home,” he says.
Listen to “Just Another Shooting”: https://linktr.ee/tommywomack2025
Finishing the song was a high point during the sessions for Womack.
“The most memorable moment for me was hearing ‘Just Another Shooting’ come through the speakers with the vocals done and everything,” he recalls. “I can’t picture people listening to that without being affected somehow.”
The song is written from the point of view of a hardcore gun owner. Womack emphasizes that the lyrics are meant to be taken ironically, describing the narrator as “the kind of guy who likes his picture made carrying his AR-15. It’s also about every damn American. My countrymen. A shooting happens, the left all look down, shake their heads and whisper ‘ah, jeez’ and the right jump up and down about how all our freedoms are at stake if you take away our God-given right to show up to work with an automatic rifle and spray the room. I hope this song will offer some strange comfort to some people and make other people want to kick my ass.”
Live a Little is Womack’s ninth solo album, and it is arguably his best. As usual, he offsets the heavier songs with humorous ones as he explores the full expanse of life, both dying and living. He’s a deep thinker. The son of a preacher, he is comfortable writing about uncomfortable subjects — from the embarrassing to the fatal. Life isn’t fair, as he notes several times, and while “God answers every prayer, sometimes the answer’s no.”
Womack recorded the album at Ambel’s Brooklyn studio Cowboy Technical Services. They began discussing recording together after a tribute concert in New York for Ambel’s late Del-Lords bandmate Scott Kempner in February 2024. Kempner had recorded Womack’s song “I’ll Give You Needles” on his 2008 album Saving Grace.
“We started talking about making a record together, and him coming up and doing it with me and my guys,” Ambel recalls. “He sent me what I like, just solo acoustic demos, and I got those to the guys so they could learn the songs without hearing somebody else’s parts.”
Album Personnel & Sessions
Band assembled by Ambel includes Jeremy Chatzky (bass) and Kenny Soule (drums). Womack played acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica, and mandolin; Ambel added electric guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals. Mario Vieli played guitar on “A Little Help Here!” and engineered the Brooklyn sessions. Peter “Wet Dawg” Gordon added piano to a couple of tracks. The 11 songs were recorded over a week in August 2024 with additional overdubs later, including vocal overdubs by Lisa Oliver-Gray, Womack’s longtime backing vocalist, recorded remotely in Nashville.
Tracklist — Live A Little
Speed, Weed & Alcohol
I Guess We’re At That Age
Waiting For the Punchline
Ten Feet Tall
Hoboken
Just Another Shooting
If I Could, I’d Pay Your Pain to Go Away
Underneath the Water Tower Again
A Little Help Here!
Horny Mormon
Funeral Girl
Catch Tommy on Tour
Oct 23 — Star Community Bar, Atlanta, GA
Oct 24 — The Village Goat, Rock Spring, GA
Oct 25 — Signal Mountain Songwriters Festival, Signal Mountain, TN
Nov 7 — 3rd & Lindsley, Nashville, TN — WMOT’s Finally Friday
Nov 20 — Dee’s, Madison, TN — Tommy Womack & The Ruins — Tommy & Lisa’s Birthday Gig
Dec 5 — 5-Spot, Nashville, TN — Get Behind the Mule
Dec 8 — Lucinda’s, NYC, NY — Record Release Party — Tommy Womack featuring Eric Ambel, Kenny Soule & Jeremy Chatzky
Dec 12 — Liquid Smoke, Murfreesboro, TN — Record Release Party
Dec 13 — 5-Spot, Nashville, TN — Tommy Womack & The Ruins Record Release Party
Dec 19 — The White Squirrel, Bowling Green, KY — Tommy Womack & The Ruins Record Release Party
More Info
Website: https://tommywomack.com
