He was a country singer and successful songwriter born in Olive Hill, Kentucky, nicknamed “The Storyteller”, who began 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 off 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 remained very much to the fore when he released Tom T. Hall Sings Miss Dixie & Tom. T in July 2007. The other numerous albums he 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.
He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in February 2008.
In August 2021 he died at home in Franklin, Tennessee when he was 85 years old.
Bobby Bare recordings
Margie’s at the Lincoln Park Inn (Tom T. Hall)
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