Legendary Songwriter Tom T. Hall Passes Away At 85

 

Tex Ritter said it best when he dubbed Tom T. Hall "The Storyteller." 

The legendary Hall of Fame singer/songwriter died today (August 20).   Details are not known surrounding a cause at this writing.

There was no "T" in Thomas Hall's name when he was born in Olive Hill, Kentucky on May 25, 1936.  That hardly mattered once he started giving us his songs.

In another music forum I described Hall as a musical James Agee, a man who gave us vibrant lyrical snapshots of daily life the way Agee did with his camera.  Sometimes the songs were completely factual (he was "sitting in Miami, pouring blended whiskey down" during the 1972 Democratic National Convention when the conversation that gave us "Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine" happened); sometimes they were "based on a true story" (the titular inspiration for "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died" was actually named Lonnie Easterly, with Hall saying that he came up with the name "Clayton Delaney" from neighbors and a nearby hill); and, sometimes they were just figments of his imagination (such as the miniskirt-wearing mother who told off the "Harper Valley P.T.A." in a song that became a massive hit for Jeannie C. Riley).  

At the end of the day, it didn't really matter if the story in the song was real or not.  While Hall may not have been attacked by a knife-wielding soldier during his Army days in Germany as outlined in "Salute to a Switchblade," you could easily see a hundred soldiers getting into that situation.  However, when he was writing reality it was stunning.  Listen to his song "Trip to Hyden" from 1971's In Search of a Song (about the eastern Kentucky coal mining town still in shock from the December 30, 1970 Hurricane Creek Mine disaster where 38 men from the town died), and you'll get chills.

Hall grew up in an area ripe with music from country and bluegrass, so it was no surprise when he turned his attention exclusively to bluegrass music in the late 80s.  He and his wife, "Miss Dixie," whom he married in 1968, wrote songs, hosted listening rooms at the annual International Bluegrass Music Association convention, and promoted numerous acts.  He and Dixie, who passed away in 2015, were rewarded with induction into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018.

The curtain falls on one of country music's greatest "slice of life" songwriters, the man who'll forever be in our hearts as The Storyteller.

And we love you, too, Tom T.

Hall was 85.

K.F. Raizor, author of the website Raizor's Edge and the book We Can't Sing and We Ain't Funny: The World of Homer and Jethro is our guest writer today on That Nashville Sound. She's ever so gracious to provide wonderful tributes to honor those to whom the music we treasure just wouldn't be the same without. Thank you, K.F.