Line #14 Music/TomTHall


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tom_t_hall.jpg]]
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3	'''Thomas "Tom T." Hall''' (May 25, 1936 -- August 20, 2021) was a CountryMusic singer and songwriter, widely considered to be one of the best of all time. His songs, which mix thoughtful lyrics that often center around [[SliceOfLife narratives of everyday life]] and [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth simple melodies]], earned him the nickname “The Storyteller”.
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5	After a stint in the US Army, studying journalism in college, and working as a disk jockey, Hall moved to UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}} in 1964 and established himself as inventive young songwriter. Encouraged to try his hand at performing, he launched his recording career in 1967 with the moderate country hit “I Washed My Face in The Morning Dew”. A year later his song “Harper Valley PTA” was recorded by Jeannie C. Riley and hit #1 on the country and pop charts. This helped kick Hall's career into high gear, and he became one of the most popular country artists of TheSeventies, with six #1 hits on the country charts. One of them, “I Love”, was also a crossover pop hit. As his music career slowed down in TheEighties he turned his focus to writing fiction (publishing novels and short story collections) and performing {{Bluegrass}} music. His profile received a much-needed boost in 1997 when Music/AlanJackson topped the country chart with a CoverVersion of Hall's song “Little Bitty”.
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7	By the way, the [[MysteriousMiddleInitial “T”]] doesn't stand for anything. He added it when he started recording because there were already several country singers with names similar to “Tom Hall”.
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9	After years of declining health, Hall died on August 20, 2021, at the age of 85, from what officials later ruled to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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12	!!Tropes present:
13	* UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}}: His home region (born and raised in the town of Olive Hill in eastern Kentucky) and the setting for a number of his songs.
14	* BalladOfX: "Ballad of Forty Dollars" was his first big hit, but even though he favored storytelling songs he pretty much avoided this trope after that.
15	* ButtMonkey: The narrator of "I Hope It Rains At My Funeral" cannot catch a break from ''anyone'': his father, his lovers, the law...
16	-->Ain't no sense in wantin' my life to live over
17	-->I'd find different ways to make those mistakes again
18	* ConceptAlbum:
19	** ''Songs from Fox Hollow'' and ''Saturday Morning Songs'' (songs for children), ''The Magnificent Music Machine'' (his 1976 {{Bluegrass}} album, though later he'd switch almost entirely to Bluegrass).
20	** He also contributed a bunch of songs to Jeannie C. Riley's ''Harper Valley PTA'' album, which was essentially an entire album about the characters in the title song.
21	* CrazyJealousGuy: "Salute to a Switchblade" is about a soldier in Germany who encounters one after unknowingly hitting on a married woman at a bar.
22	* DeadpanSnarker: Often takes on this persona in his first-person narrative songs. Also has a reputation for it in real life.
23	* DisappearedDad: "Ravishing Ruby". The lead character is abandoned by her father at a truck stop at age 14.
24	* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: [[invoked]]Mentioned in "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died"
25	-->Clayton used to tell me "son you better put that old guitar away
26	-->There ain't no money in it, it'll lead you to an early grave"
27	* TheFilmOfTheSong: "Harper Valley PTA", which even later became a TV series.
28	* TheGambler: "Deal", which compares life to a {{TabletopGame/Poker}} game
29	* HeavyMeta: "Country Is", which is more about the notion of "country" rather than just specifically CountryMusic.
30	* HeroWorshipper: The narrator of "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died" was this to the title character.
31	* HotPursuit: He uses the exact term in "Salute to a Switchblade" to describe the CrazyJealousGuy chasing him with the knife.
32	* ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere: PlayedForDrama in "I Flew Over Our House Last Night", where the narrator is flying away from home after a breakup.
33	* ICantDance: Unsurprisingly, "I Can't Dance" is all about this.
34	* InMediasRes: "Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine" is a rare music example, starting off with a quote of an exchange between the narrator and the old man, before the narrator steps back to explain how he met the man.
35	* InsistentTerminology: "Homecoming"
36	-->No, we don't ever call 'em "beer joints"
37	-->"Nightclubs" are the places that I work
38	* IntellectualAnimal: The lead character of "The Monkey That Became President", who could "lace a phrase with irony and blend it all with fact."
39	* ItAlwaysRainsAtFunerals: "I Hope It Rains At My Funeral", where the narrator takes satisfaction in knowing he'd be the only one there who'd stay dry if this happens.
40	* OdeToIntoxication: Many, but "I Like Beer" in particular.
41	* OldManConversationSong: "Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine" is arguably the TropeCodifier. "Faster Horses (The Cowboy and The Poet)" is a more comical take on the same idea.
42	* TheOneThatGotAway: The title character in "Pamela Brown", though, unexpectedly, he's ''happy'' she turned him down, since it saved him from an AwfulWeddedLife and allowed him to live an independent, carefree life.
43	* OrphansOrdeal: "Strawberry Farms" is a meditation on death and loss as sung by a young orphan.
44	* PassedInTheirSleep: The opening lines of "Ballad of Forty Dollars"
45	-->The man who preached the funeral
46	-->Said it really was a simple way to die.
47	-->He laid down to rest one afternoon
48	-->And never opened up his eyes.
49	* PreachersKid: His father was a Baptist minister.
50	* ReallyGetsAround: PlayedForDrama in "She Gave Her Heart to Jethro", about a beautiful woman married to a man who's too mentally ill to suit her physical needs.
51	-->She gave her heart to Jethro\
52	And her body to the whole damn world
53	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: "Harper Valley PTA" is famously built around one of these, aimed at an entire town full of hypocritical characters.
54	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: "Turn It On, Turn It On, Turn It On", where a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII draft rejectee goes after everyone who made fun of him.
55	* ShoutOut:
56	** Along with some close friends of his, he also mentions Music/WillieNelson, Music/WaylonJennings and Music/DollyParton in "Spokane Motel Blues".
57	** He did a philosophical, melancholy 1977 BreakupSong called [[Franchise/StarWars "May The Force Be With You Always"]].
58	* SliceOfLife: A ''master'' of this trope.
59	* TheStoryteller: Took on this persona to the extent that it became his nickname.
60	* ThisIsASong:
61	** "I Like Beer"
62	--->In some of my songs I have casually mentioned
63	--->The fact that I like to drink beer
64	--->This little song is more to the point
65	--->Roll out the barrel and lend me your ears
66	** "Spokane Motel Blues" is about being stuck in a motel in Spokane, Washington and writing a song (presumably "Spokane Motel Blues" itself).
67	* TruckDriversGearChange: He ''loves'' to change keys as a way to emphasize a PlotTwist in a song.
68	* TwelveBarBlues: "Shoeshine Man" is a rare Nashville example.
69	* UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar: Early in his songwriting career he wrote a few pro-Vietnam songs like "Hello Vietnam" (a #1 country hit for Johnny Wright) and "What We're Fighting For" (a hit for Dave Dudley), which he later admitted were [[OldShame Old Shames]] for him. A few years after he wrote and recorded "Mama Bake a Pie (Daddy Kill a Chicken)", a poignant song about a Vietnam vet who lost his legs in the war coming home.
70	* WidowsWeeds: The veiled widow in "Ballad of Forty Dollars".
71	-->That sure is a pretty dress\
72	You know, some women ''do'' look good in black

Context Music / TomTHall