|
Affectionately dubbed The Storyteller, Tom T. Hall
is one of country music's most exciting and fundamental
songwriters. In very best traditions of country music Tom
T. Hall penned tall-tales in song which best described
people and situations in small town America. Alan Gardiner
perfectly sums up Tom T. Hall's songwriting in the liner
notes of this CD; "His songs are three-minute
snapshots of ordinary people's lives, written with
exceptional wit, insight and humanity." Tom T. Hall
could and did write about any situation in life.
Britain's own Hux Records have once again have
brought two albums together on one CD. Digitally
transferred from the original master tapes we are offered
Tom T. Hall's fifth album In Search
Of A Song back-to-back with The
Rhymer And Other Five And Dimers.
In 1968 Hall signed to Mercury Records and in 1971
released an album of his most consistent work In Search
Of A Song. Eleven illustrations of down-home life fill
In Search Of A Song with
tales of life. Hall's #1 hit "The
Year Clayton Delaney Died" is an ode to the
young Hall's admiration of Floyd Carter a local guitar
player who died of TB when Tom. T was 13 years old and
never made his own mark in music, but certainly influenced
the career of Tom T. "Who's
Gonna Feed Them Hogs" is a  particular
Tom T. Hall favourite of mine telling of a hospitalised
farmer who lies virtually on his death bed, but completely
obsessed with the welfare of his animals back on the farm.
The stories continue with the graphically told story of
a mining disaster with "Trip
to Hayden", and the humorous "The
Little Lady Preacher" advocating one thing
with her Sunday sermon, but living life quite differently
herself. A sad tale of hazy love is told with "Second
Hand Flowers", with the story of a dying also-ran
girlfriend that Hall returned to time and again whenever
he had a problem. Tom T. Hall could take any situation
in life and turn it into poetry in motion as he did with
the time he travelled into the hills to visit an old man
for a story he could turn into a song. When Hall arrived
at his destination the old man recons he has no story
to tell, but Tom T. finds a song with "Kentucky,
February 27, 1971". "Ramona's
Revenge" is the story of a girl who can't
speak or write but found to be expectant and how a friendly
judge reveals the perpetrator of the situation.
Two years later (1973) Tom T. Hal released The
Rhymer And Other Five And Dimers containing 12
glorious tracks. This album gets underway with the driving
tale of a truck-stop waitress "Ravishing
Ruby" a #1 hit for Tom T. The story-songs from
Hall's childhood continue with "Don't
Forget The Coffee Billy Joe", we also find the
song that Hall says he didn't want to writ "A
Song For Uncle Curt". The melancholy of
"I Flew Over Our House Last
House" brings a deeper expression of Hall's
songwriting as his plane roars across the sky and he looks
down to where his wife lies asleep. A broken love affair
sees Hall heading for "Another
Town" and as back in the 1970's we still have
"Too Many Do-Goods".
"Old Five And Dimers Like Me"
couple of duets with Patti Page "Hello
We're Lonely" and "We're
Not Getting Old" close the album. Though the
songs on The Rhymer And Other Five
And Dimers are not as strong as those on In
Search Of A Song, there are some wonderful songs
that need to be experienced.
The musicians playing on both these albums were the
best that Nashville had to offer in the 70's including
Hargus 'Pig' Robbins, Harold Bradley, harmonica ace
Charlie McCoy, Buddy Harmon, Pete Drake and many others.
Tom T. went into semi-retirement during the 1980's
concentrating on writing children's books. Don't let this
gem get away from you…revisit the poetic genius that was
Tom T. Hall.
|
