Tom T. Hall, one of the great storytellers in country music, died on Friday at age 85. “Tom T. Hall’s masterworks vary in plot, tone, and tempo, but they are bound by his ceaseless and unyielding empathy for the triumphs and losses of others,” Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, wrote in a statement. “He wrote without judgment or anger, offering a rhyming journalism of the heart that sets his compositions apart from any other writer. He was a storyteller, a philosopher, a whiskey maker, a novelist, a poet, a painter, a benefactor, a letter writer, a gift giver, a gentleman farmer, and many more things. My bet is that we won’t see the likes of him again, but if we do I’ll be first in line for tickets to the show.”
Born in 1936, Hall was a radio disc jockey while writing his own songs that he hoped would one day get played on the airwaves. After selling a song in 1963, he moved to Nashville to pursue songwriting and music full time and his nack for nuanced characters earned him the nickname “The Storyteller,” and his songs were recorded by everyone from Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Waylon Jennings and more. It was 1968 classic “Harper Valley P.T.A.” — which went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for Jeannie C. Riley — that brought him acclaim beyond the country charts. In the 1970s he became a country star in his own right, with such hits as “(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine”, “I Love”, “Country Is”, “I Like Beer”, and “Faster Horses (the Cowboy and the Poet).”
Hall took his knack for storytelling further as a novelist and short story writer.
Rest in peace, Tom. Listen to some of his classics, and read a few tributes, below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGehLTceQbI
Thank you for all of the music, Tom T. Hall.
We’ll miss you ❤️ pic.twitter.com/dJyVISdJR6
— Grand Ole Opry (@opry) August 21, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWSgGhf0S7w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmVjjMG-BE
#RipTomTHall Damn. The greatest storyteller songwriter of all time. A writer’s writer.
There’s at least a dozen categories of song that he wrote arguably the best ever example of.— Drive-By Truckers (@drivebytruckers) August 21, 2021
https://twitter.com/JasonIsbell/status/1428895820334747650
If you love somebody enough
You’ll follow wherever they go
That’s how I got to MemphisThat’s one of the greatest opening lines in American music. RIP Tom T Hall.
— Hiss Golden Messenger (@hissgldnmssr) August 21, 2021
In 1978 when we sang at Mama Maybelle Carter’s funeral a saddened Johnny Cash walked up to the podium and asked Tom T Hall to stand with him. Johnny said “I draw strength from you Tom!” Thank you Tom T Hall for the song’s and the strength you provided to so many. #RIPTomTHall pic.twitter.com/M1chsdo3TR
— The Oak Ridge Boys (@oakridgeboys) August 21, 2021
RIP to Tom T. Hall. One of the greatest story telling songwriters ever! I used to pick and sing with him every year at Earl Scruggs’s home.https://t.co/uGJSzecxms
— Travis Tritt (@TravisTritt) August 21, 2021
https://twitter.com/LowCutConnie/status/1428877971591471114