Biographies H-P

Tom T. Hall

(Singer, Songwriter, Guitar, Banjo, Author)

• Date of Birth: May 25, 1936
• Place of Birth: Olive Hill, Kentucky
• Married: Dixie Deen ("Miss Dixie") (m. 1964)

"The Storyteller," Tom T. Hall is recognized as one of the most literate singer/songwriters in Folk-Country Music. With his semi-singing, semi-talking style, he sings his songs better than anyone else.

Born the son of a preacher, Tom started playing guitar when he was 4 and wrote his first song when he was 9. He dropped out of school when he was 15 to work at a garment factory, after one of his Uncles accidentally shot Tom’s father. When he was 17, he formed his own Bluegrass band, the Kentucky Travelers and they appeared on WMOR Morehead, Kentucky. When the band broke up after eighteen months, Tom stayed on at the station as a deejay for five years.

In 1957, Tom joined the Army and stayed for four years, completing his high school education, and entertaining the troops at night and singing over AFN. In 1961, after leaving the service, Tom rejoined WMOR and played with the Technicians, a local band. He moved to Roanoke, Virginia, where he studied writing at a local college and wrote copy for a radio station, with the ambition of becoming a journalist.

Tom moved to Nashville on January 1, 1964 and embarked on a non-stop writing schedule for $50 a week. Because he had a surplus of songs, he started recording and signed to Mercury in 1967. His first chart entry reached the Top 30, and his next two records, in 1968, peaked in the 60's, but in the summer of that year, Jeannie C. Riley recorded his song Harper Valley P.T.A., which went to No. 1 in the Country and Pop charts and was certified Gold.

From then on, through the 1970’s Tom continued to have numerous chart successes. In 1978, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and from 1980 to 1983, Tom hosted the syndicated TV show Pop Goes Country. He also has fulfilled his literary ambitions by writing three books.

Recordings include:

• A Week in a County Jail
• (Old Dogs, Children And) Watermelon Wine
• I Love
• Country Is
• Homecoming
• I Washed My Face In The Morning Dew
• The Year That Clayton Delaney Died
• Your Man Loves You Honey