I first discovered the genius that is Tom T Hall Almost by coincidence. I was browsing in Oxfam in Lanark, while waiting for a bus to take me back to my mum�s house for the weekend, when I saw 2 of his LPs in the vinyl bin, amongst the usual crappy Top of the Pops albums and Jim Reeves pap. They were 99p each, which isn�t a LOT but is a lot more than Oxfam used to charge for LPs (now, they�re about �5). I very rarely buy albums by people I�ve not heard but something about these LPs made me want to hear what the guy sounded like. The song titles (one song is called �Greed Kills More People Than Whiskey�), the pictures on the sleeves. Everything, really. Anyway, I bought one of them, �Ol� T�s in Town�, took it home and gave it a spin on the crappy old turntable I keep at my mum�s. To say I was blown away would be an understatement. Songs such as �The Different Feeling� (about a couple�s divorce and the effect it has on their pet dog (yes, weird shit or what?!)), �The Old Side of Town� and �Jesus on the Radio (Daddy on the Phone)� grabbed me by the throat with their honesty and deft storytelling. Each song was like a Raymond Carver story set to music. A little internet investigation revealed that T (as he likes to be known) is actually nicknamed �the storyteller� for this very reason.
I was back in that same Oxfam shop a week later and bought the other Tom T Hall album they had (yes, it was still there!) �In Search of a Song�. It, too, was filled with more great songs like �It Sure Can Get Cold in Des Moines� (a complete heartbreaker about observing the lonely people in a hotel bar), �The Year That Clayton Delaney Died� (an ode to a childhood guitar pickin� hero), �LA Blues� (about Tom not wanting to live in LA!) and so many more.. the cover also has great pictures of tom hanging around truck-stops and motels, giving a flavour of what the music sounds like..
By this time I was getting rather addicted to Tom T Hall, so I got a �5 CD compilation, �The Best of�. This includes such gems as �I Like Beer� (chorus �I like beer � it makes me a jolly good fellow�), �Homecoming� (a heart-rending true story about Tom visiting his elderly father on a brief hiatus from touring), �Margie�s at the Lincoln Park Inn� (which tells of a man�s infidelity to his wife) and many more. Strangely, there are no real duds on this CD, although I�m sure Tom must have written some in his time. However, �Shoeshine Man� is a bit too quirky and novelty sounding for my liking. �I Can�t Dance� is also on this CD, which was covered by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris back in the day! This is the most widely available collection of Tom�s work I�ve seen and is cheap enough to be a great introduction to anyone unfamiliar with his music. There�s another �Best of� thing, entitled �Nashville Storyteller�, which repeats some of the same tracks and has others on it too, like �Son of Clayton Delaney�, �People As Crazy As Me�, plus live takes of �I Like Beer�, �Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine�, etc. That�s also worth a purchase, as it�s only about a fiver in most places.
Then I picked up a compilation called �Real - The Tom T Hall Project� which had alt country luminaries such as Whiskeytown, Calexico, Richard Buckner, Marc Olson and Victoria Williams (as well as The Man in Black, Mr Johnny Cash himself, no less) covering a wide range of Tom�s songs. Johnny Cash kicks off proceedings with a solo acoustic take on �I Washed My Face in the Morning Dew�, his deep baritone lending this tale of injustice and intolerance a spooky, other-worldly quality. Surely Mr Cash is the best interpreter of other peoples� songs ever? Other highlights include Kelly Willis� amazing �That�s How I Got to Memphis�, which sounds like a hit single in another dimension (a dimension where records which are actually GOOD become hits!) The swooning pedal steel and Kelly�s aching vocal will reduce the hardest man or woman to tears in seconds. Syd Straw does a cover of �Harper Valley PTA� and I couldn�t believe it. This was a song I�d loved as a child, on my mother�s country music compilation albums and Tom T Hall had written it! Syd�s version is a punky take on the song and she replaces the names of the �Harper Valley hypocrites� with the names of her backing band, the Skeletons! Whiskeytown�s ramshackle version of �I Hope it Rains at my Funeral� will break your heart, even though Ryan screws up the final pay-off line of the song (which should be �Let it rain at my funeral so I�ll be the only one left there dry�. Arf!) It sounds like it was recorded at 5am, after a night of heavy drinking. �Spokane Motel Blues�, covered here by Joel RL Phelps (with his usual hysterical vocal warblings present and correct), is a song about writing a song in a motel room and includes great lines like �I wish I had a Dolly Parton tape�. Like all the greats, Tom T Hall can make you laugh and cry almost simultaneously. Ron Sexsmith does a later Hall song called �Ships Go Out� which is really moving and Calexico�s �Tulsa Telephone Book� gives the song their trademark swinging Mexican vibe.
Tom T Hall sort of retired in the early 1980s, but he still puts out the odd album here and there. He also pens the occasional book and sometimes records children�s music (which I�ve never heard, but it sounds like it�s weird as fuck!) Please check him out sometime. I don�t think you�ll be disappointed.
For info, try http://www.tthallproject.com