r/country • u/Weekly_Quail_5717 • 2d ago
Discussion Tom T. Hall appreciation post
I think Tom T. Hall is one of the more underrated country legends. Recently listened to the Cocaine and Rhinestones episode on him and Harper Valley PTA and was reminder how amazing his storytelling is. I think my favorite song (besides How I Got to Memphis, which is an absolute banger), is Homecoming. Thoughts on TTH and what are your favorite songs, albums, deep cuts?
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u/GrimeyScorpioDuffman 2d ago
“I Like Beer” and “Sneaky Snake” are some funny, silly songs.
“The Hitchhiker” and “A Week in a Country Jail” are some great story songs
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u/Weekly_Injury_753 2d ago
If you are ever heading across I-64 in Eastern Ky stop in to Walkers Restaurant near his birthplace in Olive Hill and get The Tom T. Hall Country Jail Special. Hot bologna, eggs, and gravy. Delicious.
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u/GuyOnTheMike 2d ago
But make sure to get it tomorrow.
After all, the first day I was there I turned it down
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u/W_J_B68 2d ago
Homecoming is a favorite. I really enjoyed that C&R episode. I had no idea how rich he became after HVPTA.
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u/waffen123 1d ago
Homecoming is one of my favorite country music songs.
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u/JealousPassage8213 1d ago
I didn’t hear homecoming until I after I’d actually moved away from home, and boy does it cut right through you.
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u/Weekly_Quail_5717 2d ago
What blew my mind was him having to write all those radio ads himself, and how much that helped him hone his craft for storytelling.
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u/brometheus3 2d ago
My college roommate played How I Got To Memphis so many times drunk that it’s seared into my brain. Good song good artist
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u/msstatelp 2d ago
He wasn’t underrated when he was around. The man could write. This line from Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine is just one of his many incredible creations:
“God bless little children while they’re still too young to hate.”
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u/frigoff420 2d ago
I Hope It Rains At My Funeral is maybe the best song ever recorded
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u/VanIsleNorm 2d ago
If you appreciate those tales songs where what isn’t said hits harder than what is, like homecoming, or ballad of $40, this is the best example in my opinion as well. My favourite example of brilliant songwriting.
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u/have1dog 2d ago
And onions ❤️
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u/Weekly_Quail_5717 2d ago
We have a 7 month old and sing this song to her often. For whatever reason she just cracks up when we sing that part lol.
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u/Spiritual-South-442 2d ago edited 1d ago
The entire In Search of a Song album.
Listened to his Greatest Hits album incessantly when I was a little kid. Used to listen to all the songs on Songs of Fox Hollow with my kid on the way to preschool every morning. Too many great songs on the rest of his albums to name.
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u/JoeMcCarthysGhost80 2d ago
Everyday I walk my dog and we walk by a house that has a “Parking for Tom T Hall fans only” sign. I’ve yet to meet them, but they can’t be all bad.
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u/Polkadot_cardi 1d ago
My grandmother babysat for decades. She played his Songs of Fox Hollow album for dozens of children over the years. At her funeral, we played Sneaky Snake as everyone was leaving the service. Not one dry eye in the place.
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u/Hutch_is_on 1d ago
That song (and album) holds a special spot in my heart as well. I played it a lot when my kids were little, and they all loved it and would sing along. It is nostalgic to me in a good and sweet way. It brings a smile to my face.
Even though Sneaky Snake may bring tears thinking about your grandmother when you hear it, I hope it brings a smile with those tears too.
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u/PrudentPhoto5322 1d ago
Everytime someone mentions Tom T. Hall, my brain immediately starts playing “Faster Horses”.
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u/liatriss_ 2d ago
When I was a kid my mom got me his “Country Songs for Children” album and it started a lifelong love for his songwriting. She knew what she was doing and I love her for introducing me to him at a young age
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u/Physical_Sell1607 1d ago
He's from a couple counties over from me. My Mom used to talk frequently about when he was a DJ on the Morehead, KY radio station. He was an incredible writer, singer and from what I've heard just a really good guy. Fox On The Run is a good cut that he didn't write. I Washed My Face In the Morning Dew is a good one and A Week In the County Jail
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u/joethedriver69 2d ago
Folks were huge TTH fans, I grew up listening to all his stuff. Very underrated song writer! Fox on the Run always gives me goosebumps. My top 5 are probably stretched to 10..
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u/New_Occasion_1792 1d ago
We used “I love” for our wedding reception. My wife danced with her grandpa and I danced with my mom.
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u/Reason-Status 2d ago
One of the greatest country legends ever. Saw him live in Cheyenne, Wyoming when I was a kid. He sounded just like the records. Once in a lifetime experience.
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u/Weekly_Quail_5717 2d ago
Hey! Born and raised in Cheyenne myself and wish I would’ve been able to see him live. Very cool.
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u/Reason-Status 2d ago
I remember they wheeled his band out on the back of a semi truck. He came out a little late, and probably a little drunk, but man he nailed it and his music sounded great.
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u/Weekly_Quail_5717 2d ago
Was that at CFD or somewhere else?
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u/Reason-Status 2d ago edited 2d ago
I do believe it was the Cheyenne Frontier Days, but I was only 9 years old so I don’t remember all of the specifics. Great childhood memory with cowboy hats and we still listen to Tom T Hall.
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u/FloodDawg 2d ago
Tom T. is one of my favorites. “…Memphis” is my favourite, with “I Hope It Rains at My Funeral” being a close second. That said, he has too many great songs to mention. “The Grocery Truck” is a great deep cut. I also like how “The Hitchhiker” and “Pretty Green Hills” are sort of parallel bookends to his catalog - he almost has a subgenre of songs about driving around Kentucky backroads.
I think Rodney Crowell sums it up in “Nashville 1972”: “Old school Nashville…Tom T. Hall, go drink your fill and blow us all away”
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u/idoma21 2d ago
Ravishing Ruby, Fox on the Run, and (Maggie’s at) The Lincoln Park Inn are all up there with Homecoming and A Week in a Country Jail for me. I was a young high school English teacher in the 90s. One of my class starters was listen and respond, where I would play a song and kids would write a response. I would play songs by one artist each week. I chose older artists, like Johnny Cash, Roger Miller, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, and Tom T Hall.
After the Tom T. Hall week, one of my students borrowed the CD I used. When he brought it back, he said, “I really like those songs, like Down at the Mall, but I can’t explain how those songs make me feel. It’s not like I’m sad but missing something.” For me, that’s Lincoln Park Inn. Just makes me feel melancholy.
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u/gryphonkin1 1d ago
Save possibly Shel Silverstein, the greatest story song writer in country music history.
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u/SimilarElderberry956 1d ago
Ravishing Ruby is such a beautiful song. The song is about a waitress who lives in a bunk out back. She is hoping to meet Smiling Jack. That was her daddy’s name. Watch it on You Tube.
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u/WokeAssMessiah 1d ago
I miss him. The world is a poorer place without ol' T.
Trouble is, the fella owes me forty bucks.
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u/jerrycakes Has an ex that lived in Texas 2d ago
"I Like Beer" is a classic, but I also have "Faster Horses (The Cowboy and The Poet)" in my Spotify library too. Popped up at random on Thursday driving east on I-80 towards Omaha.
I have heard his version of "How I Got to Memphis" only because I was looking for it after I heard Charley Crockett's version.
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u/Spiritual-South-442 1d ago
Bill Monroe for Breakfast and Local Flowers are standout tracks for me off his Homegrown album.
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u/bubwagon 1d ago
Agree with you on Homecoming. This story about a son and father is incredible. Also love A Week in the County Jail, Clayton Delany, Faster Horses. They all paint a verbal painting.
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u/Stcroixwe1der 1d ago
Oh lawd… you gonna have me reading that Tulsa Telephone book again. Who’s gonna feed them hogs?!
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u/Ludditeintraing 1d ago
I love his way with words and how he could make the mundane interesting.
I’m partial to “The Year Clayton Delaney Died” and “The Ballad of Forty Bucks”
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u/Glass_Selection_711 16h ago
Three Sofa Story, Greed Kills More People Than Whiskey, Turn it on Turn it on Turn it on
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u/lonelysilverrain 2d ago
He was one of those people who could tell an entire story in a song and make the most mundane things seem fascinating. I think my favorite of his is Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine but he wrote so many good songs, some for himself and some made famous by others.