Tom T Hall

Tom T Hall was born in Kentucky in 1936 and as a teenager he had his own band.  In the 50s he did a stint in the Marines and performed  over the Army Radio. Although he could sing, his great talent is as a song writer.  He is the king of the story song, a narrative about people.

After leaving the army, he had various jobs, as an announcer on radio.  He got a big break in 1963, and moved to Nashville the following year.  He started to have songs that hit it big in the charts. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, and have been very well known. 

He was married to his wife, Miss Dixie, for over 40 years.

 One of his big hits includes “A week in a country jail”, (which like a lot of his work was inspired by a real life incident). Like a lot of country songs, it has a comic element.  It is about a hillbilly sheriff who jumps on people who are not really breaking the law and the protagonist, having been innocently sitting in his car at  a red light finds himself being arrested for speeding..  He ends up in jail for a week. Another big hit was  "Harper Valley PTA," was recorded in 1968 by  Jeannie C Riley.  This again has a comedic element about a woman who was criticised by the local PTA for being flighty, wearing a short skirt and being flirtatious and how she reminds the PTA that many of them have been guilty of similar or worse behaviour. Another favourite of mine is his drinking song “I like Beer.” 

He has written songs for children and some which are a bit preachy but his talent at finding something to say about ordinary people and expressing it in lyric and music is amazing.   He has probably had more story song hits than most writers.

 One of Hall’s more serious songs was the “The Homecoming,” a hit for Bobby Bare, about a country singer, coming home after being on the road for years, to see his father after his mother has died...how he’s out of touch with his family and is trying to hide from them how little success he is having.

That’s probably my favourite Tom T Hall song, closely followed by the “Ballad of 40 bucks” which was covered by Johnny Cash, about a man’s death, and funeral and the fact that he owes the man who dug the grave 40 bucks, which he’ll never now collect. 

 Others are “Faster Horses”, “The Year that Clayton Delaney died”, “I hope it rains at my Funeral” and “Who’s gonna Feed those Hogs”.