Tom T Hall - Ultimate Collection (24 tracks) +Album Reviews

Quality Tom T

Robert L. Henry Jr. | Paden City, WV United States | 12/10/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This collection, for the most part, is solid. Most of Tom T's biggest hits for Mercury are found on this collection. However, where is "Sneaky Snake"? Also this collection goes into Tom's RCA days after Mercury. I believe this collection could have went farther into this recording period of Tom's career. However, despite a song or two left off the collection it is a
good cd of Tom's work. Tom T Hall was one of the finest country singers of the 70's and this collection serves him justice."

The last great story teller in song

Mark Blackburn | Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada | 01/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"

The Thinking Man's country music song-writer, Tom T. Hall was no more "just a country music composer" than Mark Twain was "just a country writer." As a gifted lyricist, Hall continued the great, Mark Twain story-telling tradition -- teasing us endlessly with humorous and astute observations of human frailties -- distilling it down into `artless' treasures of the song writer's art.

As with the greatest, non-theatrical lyricist of them all -- fellow southerner Johnny Mercer - Tom T. Hall's best work, such as the opening track of this terrific compilation -- the "Ballad of Forty Dollars" it's all so deceptively simple! "Heck, I could have written that!" Lyric writing never looked so easy and fun.

If it's still true that the world will always welcome lovers as time goes by --- it feels equally good about great storytellers, who can go anywhere and are never strangers --- especially those who touch our hearts through poems set to music.

The reader must indulge this frustrated poet for one minute as he closes his eyes to recite, (from 'memory imperfect') five short stanzas of lyric writing perfection.

As Frank Sinatra said of Fred Astaire's dancing in "That's Entertainment"): "You can wait around forever but you may never (experience) the likes of this again."

High art . . . disguised as the simple reflections of a grave-digger:

----

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

He just laid down to rest one afternoon and never opened up his eyes.

They hired me (and Fred and Joe) to dig the grave and carry up some chairs.

It took us seven hours and I guess we must have drunk a case of beers.

I guess I ought to go and watch them `put him down' -- but I don't own a suit.

And anyway, when they start talking `bout the "fire in hell" -- well, I get spooked.

So, I'll just sit here in my truck and act like I don't know him, when they pass.

And anyway, when they're all through I've got to go to work and mow the grass.

Well, here they come -- and who's that ridin' in that big ol' shiny limousine?

Look at all that chrome, I do believe that that's the sharpest thing I've seen.

That must belong to his great uncle, someone said he owned a big ol' farm.

When they get parked I'll mosey down and look it over, that won't do no harm.

Well that must be the widow in the car and would you take a look at that!

That sure is a pretty dress, you know some women do look good in black.

Well, he's not even in the ground and yet they say his truck is up for sale.

They say she took it pretty hard, but you can't tell too much behind the veil.

Well, listen: Ain't that pretty when the bugler plays the military taps?

I think that when you's in the war they always had to play a song like that.

Well here I am, and there they go, I guess you'd have to call it my bad luck --

I hope he rests in peace; the trouble is, the fellow owes me forty bucks.

"

A fabulous collection

Jerry McDaniel | 02/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD consists of 24 songs, 22 of them were hit singles...the non-hits are track #23, "Harper Valley PTA" and track #21 "Jesus on the Radio, Daddy on the Phone". The songs are all in chronological order and the label tries to only highlight the Top-10 hits, which he had more than what many people might think. Several of his big Top-20 hits aren't on here: "One Hundred Children", "It's All in the Game", "May the Force Be With You Always", "Watergate Blues", "Son of Clayton Delaney", "I Wish I Loved Somebody Else", and others. However, the CD is so full of monster hits for Tom that popular Top-20 hits that weren't included don't reduce the CD's importance not one bit. Tom had 21 Top-10 hits as a singer and several more as a songwriter {Hall wrote the George Jones 1980 classic "I'm Not Ready Yet"; Alan Jackson's "Little Bitty"; Jeannie C. Riley's "Harper Valley PTA"; among others}. Hall wrote most of his songs. Like i said earlier, for people seeking out Top-10 material, this CD contains all his Top-10 hits and so this is the ONLY project a casual fan should seek out...for people who appreciate Tom's unique songs, this and other compilations out there serve the purpose."

Country music storyteller

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 10/23/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tom wrote and recorded songs that told stories - little vignettes of everyday life. Other country singers did this too, but only as a part of what they did. For Tom, story songs were what mattered. You want typical love songs? Look elsewhere. Yes, Tom sometimes sang about love but, like everything else, he told it in a story.

This collection includes all his country top ten hits plus his own recording of Harper Valley PTA, a song that he wrote but which became a huge international hit for Jeannie C Riley. Her version, which sold over four million copies, topped the American charts but didn't quite make the top ten in the UK.

Among Tom's classics here are Old dogs children and watermelon wine (my favorite), Faster horses, I like beer, Ballad of forty dollars, I love, Country is, That song is driving me crazy and The year that Clayton Delaney died.

Conspicuous by their absence are Sneaky snake and One hundred children. They may not have reached the country top ten but they are among his best songs and certainly better known than some of the songs that are included here. Still, I've yet to see a compilation that includes all Tom's classic songs. Other compilations that include those two miss out other classics - and that includes the double CD boxed set, which (as I said in my review of it) could so easily have been a triple CD with no drop in quality. Dedicated fans can at least get all the classics by buying different compilations, though that means a lot of duplication. If you are such a fan, you may be better to start with the box, then add Greatest hits 2 and one of the RCA compilations, then see what else you want.

If you only want one CD of Tom's music, this is the one to buy despite the absence of two classics. If you enjoy it as much as I do, you can always buy more of his music another time."

It's About Time

Peter Durward Harris | 09/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The last of the traditional southern singer/songwriters to be massively successful in both arenas, Hall meekly remarked he had "won the lottery" when Alan Jackson recorded Hall's "Little Bitty," but Hall's own success has been well-deserved, understated, and long-running. This remarkable CD contains all of Hall's self-penned hits beginning with the hilarious "Ballad of Forty Dollars" (where a grave yard worker watches his friend's funeral and ruefully recalls that his friend owed him $40 before he died) and includes "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died," which is one of Hall's best - the heart-breaking, freeing story of a young man's sorrow over the death of his musical mentor. There is also a previously unreleased version of "Harper Valley P.T.A." which Hall wrote for Jeannie C. Riley while he was a staff songwriter. (The addition of this cut alone would be worth the price of the CD.)
Hall's convincing, sometimes whimsical first-person point-of-view vignettes can be heartbreaking, ("Country Is," "Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine") hilarious ("Fox On The Run") and socially critical ("Harper Valley PTA.") Hall's considerable writing and flatpicking ability spans the range of experiences of the common working man and successful entertainer in an autobiographical narrative wit like no other of his time (perhaps ever) and summarizes show business in a song about an entertainer who drives home to rest and has an emotional conversation with his dad in one of his finest moments, "Homecoming." For those who can't afford the 2-disc box set released by Mercury, (which contains some non-esential material) this CD has great liner notes, all of Hall's best tunes, and a budget price."

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