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He is a country singer and successful songwriter born
in Olive Hill, Kentucky, and nicknamed "The Storyteller". He began in his musical career in
his teens, performing in a travelling theatre with the band he had formed
called the Kentucky Travelers.
He was then drafted into the Army and was regularly heard on the
Armed Forces Radio Network, often with his songs that were a comic look at
his military life. Once he
left service he concentrated on radio and became an announcer at WRON in
Ronceverte, West Virginia, which he later followed at WVRC Radio in
Spencer, West Virginia. He was
a prolific songwriter and in 1963 his "DJ for a Day" was recorded by Jimmy
S. Newman which was enough to make him move to Nashville in 1964 and be
catapulted into the successful career of writing chart-breaking songs, with
eleven No. 1s, for many country artists that have included Johnny Cash,
Waylon Jennings, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Rodriguez, Flatt & Scruggs, Loretta
Lynn, Bobby Bare and George Jones.
After the success of his Grammy winning "Harper Valley P.T.A." sung by Jeannie C. Riley, his own
career as a solo artist took of and he began to see hits of his own that
included "Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine", "I Like Beer", "The Year
Clayton Delaney Died" and the No. 1 country hit, "I Care". In
1980 he hosted the TV show Pop Goes Country and is still very much
to the fore today releasing Tom T. Hall Sings Miss Dixie & Tom. T
in July 2007. The other numerous
albums he has appeared on include his own Ballad of Forty Dollars and
Other Great Songs, 100 Children, We All Got Together and..., The
Storyteller, Fast Horses, Country Songs for Children and Homegrown
and Essential Earl Scruggs, Golden Celebration by Patti Page, Johnny
Cash & Friends, Lester Raymond Flatt, Old Five and Dimers Like Me by
Billy Joe Shaver and Dr. Demento's Country Corn.
Bobby Bare recordings
Margie's at the Lincoln Park Inn (Tom T. Hall)
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_T._Hall
- http://www.mercurynashville.com/tomthall/
- http://www.tomthall.net/
- http://www.tthproject.com/
- http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Tom%20T.%20Hall:1927001365
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