R.I.P Tom T Hall – the Storyteller has Left the Building
Tom T Hall, The Storyteller, passed away 20 August 2021, at his home in Franklin, Tennessee. At the age of 85.
One of the greatest American songwriters. That would be 36 Top Ten Hits including 12 to number one.
He was born in Kentucky, 25 May 1936. He would have been a youngster when Bill Monroe from the same state laid down the definitive blueprint for Bluegrass.
He subsequently married Bluegrass songwriter and producer Dixie Hall in the early Sixties.
As a teenager he kicked around in various Country outfits. After High School he worked as a radio DJ. Enlisted and served time in Germany in 1957, which would have overlapped a little with Elvis.
Songwriting came after that and he was a salaried one in Nashville in the Sixties. Songs were picked up by the heavy hitters. Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Waylon Jennings just to take them off the top.
One was called Hello. Vietnam. Supporting the war on Charlie, just before the tsunami of protest.
The big one was Harper Valley PTA performed by Jeannie C Riley. Won a Grammy. A Movie and television series and probably even books took inspiration from it.
As a performer he had an easy conversational style of singing with the emphasis on telling the story. He would be closest to Woody Guthrie in this and his huge body of work stretched out to encompass the view of America from its dreams and myths as well as its grassroots reality.
He would be Rust-Belt and Farm Folk. Honest people making a living and Springsteen would owe some debt to him.
Salute to a Switchblade, A Week in a County Jail, I Like Beer, The Year Clayton Delaney Died, That Song is Driving Me Crazy. Just a few of the great ones.
The first one I heard, on Casey Kasem’s American Top Forty. (Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine. Different to the conveyor-belt overprocessed Country coming out of Nashville at the time.
He had the observations of a writer like Steinbeck or Chekhov. He wrote books.
Known for children’s songs too, just like Guthrie.
A good place to start would be Tom T. Hall – Storyteller, Poet, Philosopher. It’s here on Spotify.
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August 24, 2021 @ 4:37 pm
haha yeah i heard that one too growing up on casey kasim’s hour or 2 on the radio,old dogs..
August 25, 2021 @ 11:54 am
A great time for music. In truth, great music is around whatever the time, including the present.
Another one bites the dust from the news today. Dust to Dust.