“The beaten path of common words can only lead us to misunderstanding.”

‘That’s How I Got to Memphis’ was the first Tom T. Hall song that I ever heard. It also happens to be the very first song on his debut album, Ballad of Forty Dollars. It doesn’t sound like a first song, though. It sounds like a mature country veteran playing to his strengths, the kind of thing a seasoned songwriter would use as the centerpiece of his tenth album when he wanted to cash in and only needed a single hit to get some radio play. It just has that laid back, unforced quality that comes from years of practice. The album is subtitled “And His Other Great Songs” so when such a fine song came pouring out of my speakers I thought for sure I had mistakenly nabbed a greatest hits album. But it’s really his debut. The reason it sounds so polished is that by the time of its recording, the man was legitimately a veteran songwriter. He was already in his early thirties and had penned hits for acts such as Jimmy C. Newman, Dave Dudley, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash (among others). He worked for $50/week for Newman’s publishing company, reportedly writing up to six songs each day and earning the nickname “The Storyteller”, before he signed with Mercury Records and began recording his own music.

Considering who he was writing for at the time, it’s no surprise what his music sounds like. The first single that Mercury issued was ‘I Washed My Face in the Morning Dew’ which sounds like pure Cash—he even sings it in an intonation that sounds like Cash, which he doesn’t do throughout the rest of the album. On other tracks Hall tries on various strains of classic country sound without ever really coloring outside of the lines, stylistically. He proves incredibly competent at putting together the simple country song and the production team brings it all together very well. The backing musicians are steady, and the touches of female vocals and guitar fills are extremely tasteful.

The first strange town I was ever in/The county was hangin’ a man.

What’s strange is that usually pure songwriters, the kind that make a living writing songs for others to perform, choose that path because they don’t have the performative chops to do their own work justice. For instance, some critics take the indefensible position that someone like Bob Dylan should have been a songwriter rather than a singer-songwriter because other musicians have made cover versions of his songs that (they think) surpass his own. But on this album, Hall proves that he’s a very competent singer that probably should have been performing his own songs all along.

Even evident on this first album is the burgeoning “storyteller” persona that would become Hall’s main schtick. After the success of the Hall-penned ‘Harper Valley PTA’ by Jeannie C. Reilly in 1968, fans were eager to hear more from Hall. At this point, with his album still unreleased, ‘Ballad of Forty Dollars’ was released. It’s a neat little story song narrated by a cemetery caretaker who realizes that the dead man whose funeral is taking place owes him forty bucks that he’ll never see again. It was covered by a bunch of other singers and helped to popularize the story song as a narrative vehicle. It’s not his best story song, but it’s one of his most important.

The man who preached the funeral/Said it really was a simple way to die.

‘That’s How I Got to Memphis’ was also heavily covered. In my opinion, it’s the best song on the album, even though it was never released as a single. Its refrain is sung with a wistful tone and the plaintive guitar line is a really nice touch that helps get the tune stuck in your head. Of the other songs that flesh out the album, all are serviceable but few stand out. ‘A Picture of Your Mother’ is another story song detailing a conversation between a father and daughter about the young girl’s mother who had died three years prior. I like ‘em all well enough to listen through the album every now and then. They’re all very pleasant but also fairly similar and I don’t think I’d be able to pick them out of a lineup. They just don’t have the rich characterization and memorable lines that mark the best of Hall’s work, and so they kind of fall out of the back of your mind soon after you’ve heard them.

It’s a very strong debut from an interesting figure in the history of country music but one that he would easily surpass in his follow up efforts.

Favorite Tracks: That’s How I Got to Memphis; Ballad of Forty Dollars; I Washed My Face in the Morning Dew; A Picture of Your Mother.

Sources:
Batey, Angus. “Cult heroes: Tom T Hall, the singer who wrote of real lives and changing times”. The Guardian. 31 March 2015.