{"id":1320181,"date":"2020-05-24T23:01:50","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T05:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1821468"},"modified":"2020-05-24T23:01:50","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T05:01:50","slug":"country-legends-we-love-tom-t-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/country-legends-we-love-tom-t-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Legends We Love: Tom T. Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:693034?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<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\">10m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>With his lyrical vignettes of colorful characters and commonplace situations, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/tom-t-hall\">Tom T. Hall<\/a> is known to classic country fans as The Storyteller.<\/p>\n<p>Highly regarded as a songwriter and recording artist, his hits include \u201cHarper Valley P.T.A.\u201d for Jeannie C. Riley and his own recording of \u201c(Old Dogs, Children And) Watermelon Wine.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ql-gJwX3WtI?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ql-gJwX3WtI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Thomas Hall was born in the eastern Kentucky village of Olive Hill on May 25, 1936. His mother died while Hall was just beginning to show interest in writing poems and songs. Later his father, a preacher, was disabled in a hunting accident, which led Hall to quit school when he was 15 to help support his family. This he did through various jobs, including working in a garment factory, playing in a bluegrass band and filling in as a part-time disc jockey.<\/p>\n<p>Hall joined the Army in 1957 and was stationed in Germany. While serving in the quartermaster corps, he completed his high school education and entertained his fellow soldiers. Following his discharge in 1961, he enrolled in college with the aim of becoming a journalist. Again he worked as a disc jockey and dabbled in writing songs, some of which he sent to a Nashville publisher.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lY2WLzZ6m9g?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lY2WLzZ6m9g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>One of these songs, \u201cD.J. for a Day,\u201d was recorded in 1963 by Grand Ole Opry star Jimmy C. Newman and became a No. 9 hit. Hall moved to Nashville the following year to pursue songwriting full time and soon added the definitive \u201cT.\u201d to his stage name, as he doesn\u2019t have a middle name.<\/p>\n<p>Dave Dudley landed a Top 10 hit with \u201cMad\u201d and went on to record many of Hall\u2019s songs. In 1965, Hall scored his first No. 1 as a songwriter via Johnny Wright\u2019s recording of \u201cHello Vietnam,\u201d later appearing on the soundtrack to the 1987 , <em>Full Metal Jacket<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZQDH_2IKaE4?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZQDH_2IKaE4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Hall was turning out songs in such volume that in 1967 Mercury Records\u2019 Jerry Kennedy signed him as an artist. For the next nine years, every song that Hall charted came from his own pen. In fact, of the 54 songs he charted between 1967 and his final one in 1986, only eight were by other writers. Twenty-one of those singles reached the Top 10.<\/p>\n<p>The first three songs Hall released for Mercury made it only into the lower regions of the charts, but his fourth one, \u201cBallad of Forty Dollars,\u201d went Top 5 and solidified his credentials as a homey storyteller. Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings recorded it for their 1986 album, <em>Heroes<\/em>. Hall\u2019s equally narrative-based \u201cA Week in a Country Jail,\u201d released in 1969, became his first No. 1 as an artist.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A11Ciic_FM4?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A11Ciic_FM4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>In 1968, Jeannie C. Riley, also a new artist, took Hall\u2019s \u201cHarper Valley P. T. A.,\u201d a sassy put-down of small-town morality to the top of both the country and pop charts. It would be Riley\u2019s only chart-topper, but it won her a Grammy for best female country vocalist. The song was made into a movie in 1978 and into a TV series in 1981. Riley\u2019s recording entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking about that song, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1506920\/in-the-words-of-tom-t-hall\/\">Hall told CMT.com<\/a> in 2005, \u201cIt\u2019s a true story. I was just a fly on the wall. I was only 8, 9 or 10 years old at the time. I was mowing grass around the neighborhood \u2014 it sounds like I should have turned into a landscaper. The lady was a really free spirit, modern way beyond the times in my hometown. They got really huffy about her lifestyle. She didn\u2019t go to school, but they could get to her through her daughter. She took umbrage at that and went down and made a speech to them. I mean, here\u2019s this ordinary woman taking on the aristocracy of Olive Hill, Kentucky, population 1,300. When I was a kid, you just didn\u2019t take on the aristocracy. It was unheard of.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DoD3lOCyz1A?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DoD3lOCyz1A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Hall showed his literary side in 1969 with \u201cHomecoming,\u201d a textbook example of a dramatic monologue in which a smooth-talking, but down-and-out country singer tries halfheartedly to make amends to his father for missing his mother\u2019s funeral and other moral lapses.<\/p>\n<p>Bobby Bare earned two back-to-back Top 5 hits with Hall\u2019s compositions: \u201c(Margie\u2019s At) The Lincoln Park Inn\u201d in 1969 and \u201cThat\u2019s How I Got to Memphis\u201d in 1970. Dudley also secured his only No. 1 hit with Hall\u2019s \u201cThe Pool Shark\u201d in 1970. The Grand Ole Opry inducted Hall in 1971 and he received a CMA Entertainer of the Year nomination in 1973. George Jones released Hall\u2019s plaintive \u201cI\u2019m Not Ready Yet\u201d as a 1980 single, following \u201cHe Stopped Loving Her Today\u201d and reaching No. 2.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/49AFt8AGfZ4?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/49AFt8AGfZ4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Among the throng of memorable tunes that Hall wrote and took No. 1 or Top 10 were the moving \u201c(Old Dogs, Children And) Watermelon Wine,\u201d \u201cThe Year That Clayton Delaney Died,\u201d \u201cMe and Jesus,\u201d \u201cRavishing Ruby,\u201d \u201cThat Song Is Driving Me Crazy,\u201d \u201cCountry Is,\u201d \u201cDeal,\u201d \u201cI Like Beer,\u201d \u201cFaster Horses (The Cowboy and the Poet),\u201d and \u201cI Care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Always a fan of bluegrass music, Hall devoted an entire album to it \u2014 <em>The Magnificent Music Machine<\/em> \u2014 in 1976. It featured guest artists Bill Monroe, J. D. Crowe and Jimmy Martin, among other notables. In 1982, he and another of his bluegrass heroes, Earl Scruggs, released the album <em>The Storyteller and the Banjo Man<\/em>. That same year, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson cut \u201cThe Year That Clayton Delaney Died\u201d for their 1982 album, <em>WWII<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NW1KPWrQJeI?start=50&amp;feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NW1KPWrQJeI?start=50&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Hall won his only Grammy for writing the liner notes to his 1972 album, <em>Tom T. Hall\u2019s Greatest Hits<\/em>. Two years later he issued the charming album, <em>Songs of Fox Hollow (For Children of All Ages)<\/em>. He turned author in 1976 when he published a book on songwriting. Eight more books followed, including novels, a memoir and a children\u2019s book.<\/p>\n<p>Hall hosted a syndicated music program, <em>Pop! Goes the Country<\/em>, in the early \u201880s before retreating from the stage. Mercury Records issued a two-disc box set titled <em>Storyteller, Poet, Philosopher<\/em> in 1995. In 1996, Alan Jackson cut one of Hall\u2019s newer songs, \u201cLittle Bitty,\u201d which went No. 1 at country radio for two weeks.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Eo2OIUpWznY?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Eo2OIUpWznY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Brad Paisley cut \u201cMe and Jesus\u201d as a bonus track for his 2014 album, <em>Moonshine in the Trunk<\/em>. Meanwhile, \u201cI Love\u201d has been used for commercials ranging from Little Debbie snack cakes to Ford Trucks and Coors Light. Jon Pardi\u2019s rendition of \u201cI Like Beer\u201d was placed in a Super Bowl commercial for Michelob Ultra in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>In the years following his retirement from performing in the mid-1990s, Hall and his wife Dixie returned to bluegrass as songwriters and patrons of young bluegrass artists, many of whom recorded in the Halls\u2019 home studio. Dozens of their songs were recorded by both up-and-coming and established bluegrass acts up through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1748137\/dixie-hall-songwriter-and-wife-of-tom-t-hall-dead-at-80\/\">Dixie Hall\u2019s death<\/a> in 2015.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uUmVjjMG-BE?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uUmVjjMG-BE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Hall received the ACM Poets Award, presented to legendary songwriters, in 2010, and he was named a BMI Icon in 2012. In addition he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1978, the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008, and, with Dixie, into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018. The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted him in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the last notch in my pistol,\u201d Hall told <em>Billboard<\/em> about the latter honor. \u201cBut I figured if you\u2019re a songwriter, it\u2019s the ultimate. I hadn\u2019t thought about being in that one, because it never dawned on me that they would consider me up there.\u201d<\/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\/1821468\/country-legends-we-love-tom-t-hall\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 10m ago With his lyrical vignettes of colorful characters and commonplace situations, Tom T. Hall is known to classic country fans as The Storyteller. Highly regarded as a songwriter and recording artist, his hits include \u201cHarper Valley P.T.A.\u201d for Jeannie C. Riley and his own recording of \u201c(Old Dogs, Children And) Watermelon [&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-1320181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 05:30:18","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\/1320181","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=1320181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}