{"id":1310668,"date":"2019-05-24T23:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T05:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1806985"},"modified":"2019-05-24T23:00:44","modified_gmt":"2019-05-25T05:00:44","slug":"at-83-tom-t-hall-basks-in-the-variety-of-characters-he-created","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/at-83-tom-t-hall-basks-in-the-variety-of-characters-he-created\/","title":{"rendered":"At 83, Tom T. Hall Basks in the Variety of Characters He Created"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/morrise\/\" title=\"Posts by Edward Morris\" rel=\"author\">Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">12m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Country songs are filled with memorable characters \u2014 \u201cThe Gambler,\u201d \u201cJolene,\u201d the unfaithful wife in \u201cLong Black Veil,\u201d \u201cPancho and Lefty,\u201d the dreamer in \u201cGreen Green Grass of Home,\u201d the Statler Brothers\u2019 \u201cMonday Morning Secretary\u201d \u2014 but no one creates more vivid characters than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/tom-t-hall\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Tom T. Hall<\/a>, who made his first appearance on earth 83 years ago Saturday (May 25) and whose genius we heartily applaud.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo\" id=\"85d4bedb\">\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"><noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;img&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-85225849-1558715700.jpg?quality=0.85&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-85225849-1558715700.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=481 481w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-85225849-1558715700.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=660 660w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-85225849-1558715700.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=768 768w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-85225849-1558715700.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=980 980w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-85225849-1558715700.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1200 1200w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-85225849-1558715700.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1500 1500w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-85225849-1558715700.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1800 1800w\" title=\"Photo of Tom T HALL\" class=\"js-srcset-img shortcode-image\" alt><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<div class=\"photocredit\">GAB Archive\/Redferns<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Kentucky-born Hall has been that rarest of songwriters \u2014 one who writes alone. Of the 54 country singles he racked up between 1967 and his \u201cretirement\u201d from chart combat in the mid-1980s, he wrote 42 unaided, including his seven No. 1s and 13 Top 10s.<\/p>\n<p>From the late 1990s until her death in 2015, Hall collaborated with his wife, \u201cMiss Dixie,\u201d on hundreds of bluegrass tunes that were recorded by dozens of artists. Bluegrass had been Hall\u2019s first love before he turned to country. <em>The Magnificent Music Machine<\/em> in 1976 was a celebration of bluegrass and featured guest performances by such heavyweights as Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin and J. D. Crowe.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo\" id=\"f2d38e4d\">\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"><noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;img&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-137258950-1558715707.jpg?quality=0.85&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-137258950-1558715707.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=481 481w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-137258950-1558715707.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=660 660w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-137258950-1558715707.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=768 768w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-137258950-1558715707.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=980 980w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-137258950-1558715707.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1200 1200w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-137258950-1558715707.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1500 1500w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-137258950-1558715707.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1800 1800w\" title=\"GRAMMY Nominee Party\" class=\"js-srcset-img shortcode-image\" alt><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<div class=\"photocredit\">Rick Diamond\/WireImage for NARAS<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"photo\" id=\"921407a8\">\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"><noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;img&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-151956879-1558715720.jpg?quality=0.85&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-151956879-1558715720.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=481 481w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-151956879-1558715720.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=660 660w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-151956879-1558715720.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=768 768w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-151956879-1558715720.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=980 980w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-151956879-1558715720.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1200 1200w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-151956879-1558715720.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1500 1500w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/GettyImages-151956879-1558715720.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1800 1800w\" title=\"2012 Americana Awards &amp; Honors Show\" class=\"js-srcset-img shortcode-image portrait\" alt><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<div class=\"photocredit\">Erika Goldring\/Getty Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>But let\u2019s get back to the matter at hand. Here are seven distinctive characters from Hall\u2019s voluminous catalog, all of whom remains as radiant as the day (or night) they first emerged from his bubbling imagination.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"listicle-container\">\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">The Gravedigger<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>\u201cThe Ballad of Forty Dollars\u201d (No. 1, 1968)<\/p>\n<p>Like the two gabby, irreverent gravediggers in Hamlet, the three good ol\u2019 boys mentioned here are just working stiffs hired to carve out an earthen niche for a local big shot. They are less than grief stricken: \u201cIt took us seven hours,\u201d says the narrator, \u201cand I guess we must have drunk a case of beer.\u201d While waiting for the ceremonies to end, they observe and discourse on the deceased\u2019s wealth, the limousine his widow\u2019s riding in and how good she looks in black. By the time taps are played, the narrator is already thinking of his next chore \u2014 mowing grass \u2014 and explaining why the guy\u2019s death does leave him with a certain sense of loss.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">The Troubadour<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>\u201cHomecoming\u201d (No. 5, 1969)<\/p>\n<p>People who paid too much attention in their high school and college introduction to literature classes will remember parsing through Robert Browning\u2019s \u201cMy Last Duchess,\u201d which was always included in anthologies as an example of \u201cdramatic monologue.\u201d That\u2019s the literary form in which a speaker reveals to the listener a personality that\u2019s quite different from what he or she intends to convey. Hall\u2019s \u201cHomecoming\u201d is every bit as skillfully executed as Browning\u2019s \u201cDuchess.\u201d In it, Hall lets a guilt-nudged, down-and-out country singer condemn himself as feckless, even as he\u2019s trying to play the dutiful son for his widowed father. Listen closely. It\u2019s a master\u2019s class in character development.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">The Jailbird<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>\u201cA Week in a Country Jail\u201d (No.1, 1969)<\/p>\n<p>Here the singer \u2014 who\u2019s been arrested and jailed for speeding \u2014 comes to terms with his confinement. At first, he rejects the \u201chot bologna, eggs and gravy\u201d the jailer\u2019s wife offers him. But as the week drags on, both the food and the wife grow more appetizing. You can figure it out from there. Notice how meticulously Hall accounts for time as it slowly ticks away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">The Picker<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>\u201cThe Year That Clayton Delaney Died\u201d (No. 1, 1971)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClayton was the best guitar picker in our town,\u201d declares the narrator in this lyrical tribute. The song skips along tracing Clayton\u2019s career from playing \u201cup in Ohio in five-piece band\u201d to charming the local youth with his music and his booze, to his lingering death and religious conversion. \u201cI remember the year Clayton Delaney died,\u201d laments the narrator, \u201cNobody ever knew it, but I went out in the woods, and I cried.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">The Janitor<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>\u201cOld Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine\u201d (No. 1, 1972)<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a stain on the Recording Academy that this song isn\u2019t in the Grammy Hall of Fame. To quote the lyrics piecemeal would drain them of the drama coiled inside. But there\u2019s never been a better song about a lonely old \u201cphilosopher\u201d than this one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">The Abandoned Waif<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>\u201cRavishing Ruby\u201d (No. 3, 1973) Ruby is a truck stop waitress whose obsession is an absentee father who promised he\u2019d return to her but hasn\u2019t. \u201cRavishing Ruby, she sleeps in a bunk out back\/Her days and nights are filled with dreams of a man named Smilin\u2019 Jack\/That was her daddy\u2019s name, that\u2019s all she ever knew\/Ravishing Ruby ain\u2019t got time for guys like me and you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">The Hot Mama<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>\u201cHarper Valley P. T. A.\u201d (No. 1, 1968; written by Hall, recorded by Jeannie C. Riley)<\/p>\n<p>This song about a mini-skirted mama who dresses down the local parent-teachers association on her daughter\u2019s behalf and in defense of her own reputation, launched Jeannie C. Riley\u2019s recording career, won her a best country vocal Grammy and was made into a movie (1978) and a TV series (1981). Not a bad roll of the dice for a Kentucky boy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hall, who billed himself as \u201cThe Storyteller,\u201d was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1978 and, with his wife Dixie, into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1806985\/at-83-tom-t-hall-basks-in-the-variety-of-characters-he-created\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 12m ago Country songs are filled with memorable characters \u2014 \u201cThe Gambler,\u201d \u201cJolene,\u201d the unfaithful wife in \u201cLong Black Veil,\u201d \u201cPancho and Lefty,\u201d the dreamer in \u201cGreen Green Grass of Home,\u201d the Statler Brothers\u2019 \u201cMonday Morning Secretary\u201d \u2014 but no one creates more vivid characters than Tom T. Hall, who made his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 14:30:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}