Greg Tamblyn will play at Charles and Myrtle's Coffeehouse on Saturday at 8 p.m. The coffeehouse is inside Christ Unity Church at 105 McBrien Road. There is a $10 suggested donation at the door.
Review for Greg Tamblyn:
When you consider that most of the songs from Nashville are about broken hearts, shattered dreams, and mamas getting run over by pickups, it's no surprise that songwriter Greg Tamblyn finally found a new niche. Tamblyn is much too successful to sing the country-western blues. He's just released his 6th CD, he's playing concerts all over the country, and he's even a sought after entertainer at health and wellness seminars.
Tamblyn left his hometown Kansas City in 1986, stifled by a lack of opportunities. Oh sure, he was playing local bars, and he'd been rated "Best Male Vocalist in Kansas City" by a local newspaper. He'd even sold a couple of songs to a country singer from the Philippines. But the lure of Nashville was too great. Eventually, he landed a writing job for a Nashville song publisher. Along with having some of his songs recorded by country artists, Tamblyn successfully released his own single, "It's Another Joyful Elvis Presley Christmas." It caught the attention of radio stations and reviewers around the country, and was named "Christmas Single of the Year" in Cashbox magazine.
Then the Cayman Islands Hyatt offered him a gig. Remember that pool bar that Gene Hackman sat near in The Firm? The singer in the background could have been Tamblyn. Except by that time, he'd left, burned out by tourists wanting to hear "Margaritaville" for the 896th time. He wanted to sing his own songs.
Then he was asked to play a wellness conference at Duke University Medical Center. With songs such as "The Shootout at the I'm OK, You're Ok Corral," and "My Life is a Beer Commercial," he was a smash hit. The brochure for the conference listed Tamblyn as a member of the seminar's faculty. Where initials such as M.D. and Ph.D. followed the other presenters' names, the listing for Tamblyn was followed by N.C.W., which stands for 'No Credentials Whatsoever'.
With humorous songs about inner guides named Clyde and environmental slowpokes who think the greenhouse effect means crummy tomatoes, Tamblyn has found a huge audience. In addition to his public concerts, he's played for groups as diverse as the Department of Defense and the American Holistic Medical Association.
Stories from his life and songwriting have been featured in several recent books, including "Stressed Is Desserts Spelled Backwards", by Brian Luke Seaward; "Shelter For The Spirit", by Victoria Moran; and "Art and Soul", by Pam Grout.