Tom T. Hall | |
|---|---|
 Hall in 1967 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Thomas Hall[1] May 25, 1936 Tick Ridge, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | August 20, 2021(2021-08-20) (aged 85) Franklin, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter, author |
| Instruments | |
| Years active | 1963–2011 |
| Labels | |
Thomas Hall (May 25, 1936 – August 20, 2021), known professionally asTom T. Hall and informally nicknamed "the Storyteller",[3] was an Americancountry music singer-songwriter and short-story author. He wrote 12 number-one hit songs, with 26 more that reached the top 10, including the number-one internationalpopcrossover hit "Harper Valley PTA", and "I Love", which reached number 12 on theBillboard Hot 100. He is included inRolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Songwriters. He was inducted into theCountry Music Hall of Fame in 2008, and theInternational Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame alongside his wife Dixie in 2018.
Hall was born on Tick Ridge, seven miles south ofOlive Hill, Kentucky, on May 25, 1936.[4][5] As a teenager, he organized a band, called the Kentucky Travelers, which performed before movies for a traveling theater.[5] Hall enlisted in theU.S. Army in 1957, serving in Germany.[6][7] While in the service, he performed over theArmed Forces Radio Network and wrote comic songs about army experiences.[5] Following his discharge in 1961, he usedG.I. Bill educational benefits to enroll atRoanoke College, where he worked as a disc jockey.[8] His early career included being an announcer atWRON, a local radio station inRonceverte, West Virginia. Hall was also anannouncer at WMOR (1330 AM) inMorehead and WGOH (1370 AM) inGrayson, both in Kentucky. Hall was also an announcer at WSPZ, which later becameWVRC Radio inSpencer, West Virginia, in the 1960s.[9]
Hall's big songwriting break came in 1963, when country singerJimmy C. Newman recorded his song "DJ for a Day".[5] In 1964, Hall moved toNashville and started to work as a $50-a-week songwriter for Newkeys Music, the publishing company belonging to Newman and his business partner, Jimmy Key, writing up to half a dozen country songs per day.[10] Key suggested that he add the middle initial "T" to his name.[10] Hall was nicknamed "The Storyteller", and he composed songs for dozens of country music stars, includingJohnny Cash,George Jones,Loretta Lynn,Waylon Jennings,Alan Jackson, andBobby Bare. He also penned "Hello Vietnam", a song that openly supported theVietnam War at a time when war-protest songs were beginning to dominate the pop music chart. The song proved to be a hit for country singerJohnnie Wright and was later used by Stanley Kubrick to provide the soundtrack to the barbershop montage that opens his 1987 Vietnam filmFull Metal Jacket.[11]
One of Hall's earliest successful songwriting ventures, "Harper Valley PTA", recorded in 1968 byJeannie C. Riley,[5] hit number one on theBillboard Hot 100 andHot Country Singles charts a week apart. It sold over six million copies and won both aGrammy Award and aCMA Award. The song went on to inspire a motion picture and television program of the same name. Hall himself recorded the song for his albumThe Definitive Collection (as track number 23). His recording career took off after Riley's rendition of the song, and he released a number of hits from the late 1960s through the early 1980s. Some of his biggest hits include "A Week in a Country Jail", "(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine", "I Love", "Country Is", "The Year Clayton Delaney Died", "I Like Beer", "Faster Horses (the Cowboy and the Poet)", and "That Song Is Driving Me Crazy".[5] One of Hall's best-known numbers, "Pamela Brown", was recorded byLeo Kottke and became a staple of Kottke's performances. Hall is also noted for his child-oriented songs, including "Sneaky Snake" and "I Care", the latter of which hit number one on the country charts in 1975. His song "I Love", in which the narrator lists the things in life that he loves, was recorded by Heathen Dan, with completely altered lyrics, as "I Like"[12] and appeared many times onDr. Demento's show in the early 1980s. Hall's song was also used with altered lyrics and a hard-rock arrangement in a popular 2003 TV commercial forCoors Light.[13] In the mid- to late 1970s, Hall was a commercial spokesperson forChevrolet trucks.[14]
Hall succeededRalph Emery as host of thesyndicated country music TV showPop! Goes the Country in 1980 and continued until the series ended in 1982.[15] Hall largely retired from writing new material in 1986[16] and from performing in 1994;[17] his last public performance, which was also his first in several years, was in 2011.[18]
Hall won theGrammy Award for Best Album Notes in 1973 for the notes he wrote for his albumTom T. Hall's Greatest Hits. He was nominated for, but did not win, the same award in 1976 for his albumGreatest Hits Volume 2. He was a member of theGrand Ole Opry from 1971.[19][20] In 1998, his 1972 song "(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine" came in second in aBBC Radio 2 poll to find the UK's favoriteeasy listening record, despite never having been a hit in the UK and being familiar to Radio 2 listeners mostly through occasional plays by DJTerry Wogan.[21]
Hall was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2002,[22] and into theCountry Music Hall of Fame on February 12, 2008.[23] His wait for these honors was longer than anticipated; Hall attributed it to being somewhat reclusive and "not well liked" among theNashville music industry, noting that he almost never collaborated with other songwriters, and by the 1990s, was largely out of step with the corporate style of country music.[17]
On June 1, 2014,Rolling Stone ranked "(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine" at number 93 on its list of the 100 greatest country songs.[24] In November 2018 Hall and his wife Dixie Hall were inducted together into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.[25] On June 13, 2019, Hall was inducted into theSongwriters Hall of Fame. Of all the honors he had received in his lifetime, he considered this induction to be his proudest moment and the pinnacle of his achievement, also stating that he was taken by surprise for even being considered.[26]
Together with his wife Dixie, he won the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America Bluegrass Song Writer of the Year award in 2002,[27] 2003,[28] 2004,[29] 2005,[30] 2007,[31] 2008,[32] 2009,[33] 2010,[34] 2011,[35] 2013,[36] 2014,[37] and 2015.[38]
Hall was married in 1961 to Opal "Hootie" McKinney, a native of Grayson, Kentucky.[39][40] Their son, Dean Todd Hall, was born on June 11, 1961.[41] Dean worked for his father in the early 1980s, first as aroadie and later as a guitarist. Dean has since worked as a solo artist and with Bobby Bare's band.[39]
Hall met bluegrass songwriter Dixie Deen in 1965 at a music-industry award dinner to which she was invited for having written the song "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun", which became a hit forDave Dudley.[42] Born Iris Lawrence in theWest Midlands, England, in 1934, she emigrated to the U.S. in 1961 and married Hall in 1968, taking the name Dixie Hall. The two were married until her death on January 16, 2015.[43][44][45][42][46] They lived inFranklin, Tennessee.[45]
At age 85, Hall died at his home in Franklin, Tennessee, on August 20, 2021,[47] of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.[48]
