Tom T. Hall Stories

(written by Tom T. Hall)

Tom T. Hall (#1, 1971)

If country music ever had a Mark Twain, it was certainly Tom T. Hall. He was known as “The Storyteller” because his songs stand apart from most in the sense that they speak poetically of normal life and normal people. There was a direct, no-nonsense quality about his tunes, evident in their simplistic story lines. But while Hall’s compositions may appear that way upon first glance, they were actually built in layers, with each piece of fabric slowly revealing Hall’s own life experiences.

Tom’s interest in music began at a very early age and by his teenage years he had already formed a small string band, playing backwoods schoolhouses and small fairs. His band also performed on the local radio station in Morehead, Kentucky, 18 miles from his hometown of Olive Hill. Hall also took a job as a disc jockey at the station, and his daily show became quite popular in the area. Hall had begun writing songs by that time, but when he turned 21 he grew restless (as most young men that age do) and wanted to see the world. About the only way for a poor boy to manage that was to join the Army, which he did in 1957. By the end of his three-year hitch, he had been a lot of places and seen a lot of things, and many of those adventures would later end up in his songs.

For a while Hall went back home, resuming his old disc jockey job in Morehead, then attended college working toward a degree in journalism. Still dabbling in music, Tom sent a few of his compositions to Nashville. That was the beginning of a career that would culminate with his name enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Hall’s songs were becoming noticed, and he obtained a songwriting contract with a Nashville publisher. He seemed on his way to becoming the writer of major country music hits. Then reality set in. The songs which Hall wrote were much different from those the established writers were turning out at the time. Like Roger Miller, Tom’s stuff was considered too off-the-wall for the big artists. A few of his tunes did find homes, such as “D.J. for a Day,” a top ten hit for Jimmy Newman in 1964, and “Hello Vietnam,” by Johnny Wright, which spent three weeks at #1 in 1965. However, most of Hall’s material was rejected.

Soon after his arrival in Nashville, Tom had become friends with a session player by the name of Jerry Kennedy. When Kennedy was appointed A & R director for Mercury Records, Jerry approached Tom with an opportunity to sign with the label as a performer. That way, Tom wouldn’t have to shop his songs around to the artists, he could just record them himself. A pretty good plan except for one thing: Tom didn’t particularly want to be a recording artist. By and large, he considered himself a songwriter and nothing more. That was what he really wanted to do. Touring and working the road just didn’t appeal very much to “The Storyteller.”

Tom did sign though, and started having minor hits right off the bat in 1967, starting with “I Washed My Face in the Morning Dew” (#30). The following year he reached the Billboard Top Ten for the first time with “Ballad of Forty Dollars” and by ’70 he topped the chart for the first time with “A Week in a Country Jail.” A couple of years earlier, in 1968, an unknown Nashville secretary named Jeannie C. Riley had showcased Hall’s songwriting skills in a big way. Recording an ode about a P.T.A. meeting Tom had once attended, Riley came out of nowhere and suddenly took both the Billboard country and pop charts by storm with the breakout hit of the year “Harper Valley P.T.A.” which instantly reached #1 on both charts, and generated more airplay and more money that all of Hall’s other songs combined. By 1971, still riding the wave created by “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” Tom pulled out another memory from his past. It was the story of a man whom he had known as a boy.