Tom was a gifted songwriter and performer. He wrote Harper Valley PTA. A huge hit for Jeannie C. Riley. Alan Jackson had a early hit with Little Bitty, another song written by Tom.
Tom wrote and recorded several hits himself.
Old Dogs, Children And) Watermelon Wine and
The Year That Clayton Delaney Died are two of my favorites.
RIP Tom and thanks for the music.
That list omits “I Can’t Dance,” which was covered by Gram Parsons, which certainly lends it a modicum of respect.
He also made big bucks by coming up with "We love baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. "
Old Dogs was probably the best of his “serious” songs, but you don’t have to I very deep into his work to see how much he deserved his title of The Storyteller.
That is a good one. I’m sure Tom wrote dozens of songs that appear on other artist’s albums. He was primarily a songwriter that occasionally recorded & performed.
“Fox on the Run” was one of my favorites.
Music City Roots (YouTube) has 3 performances from Nov 16, 2011.Tom was retired but appeared on their stage for Tom T Hall Night. He still sounds pretty good at 75.
He starts singing at 2:26. There’s two other videos that are really good.
I like A Week in a Country Jail. Delightful story of being caught in a small-town speed trap.
When I was a kid, my favourite album in my dad’s country music library was “In Search of a Song”; I loved “Who’s Gonna Feed Them Hogs”.
I kind of forgot about him until a couple of years ago when I started listening to more of his stuff. My current sentimental favourite is “Ode to Half a Pound of Ground Round”, the funniest song I’ve ever heard about being hungry.
Bittersweet for me, he was my dad’s favorite and I grew up with his music, but he (dad) was an alcoholic asshole so the music takes me to some dark memories also.
My favorite is Sneaky Snake
Sneaky Snake! I honestly couldn’t remember who wrote that. I’ve always found it such an amusing/surreal tune.
Ah, RIP Tom T. Hall
No disrespect, but:
“Pay No Attention to Alice” is the most grimly realistic portrayal of living with an alcoholic family member that I’ve ever heard.