Monday, February 17, 2025
Time: 5:10 PM
Song: Faster Horses (The Cowboy and the Poet)
Artist: Tom T. Hall
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on the way home from work.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/11QUG7teTcHUXgP1KsdvuX?si=8d94702358fb4d84
The drive home featured some staples of my musical lifetime. A real tour of my listening roots, if you will.
“Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen – Boy, that’s been in rotation since my sister bought me the Boss’s Greatest Hits on cassette tape sometime in the early-to-mid 1990s.
“Yesterday” by the Beatles – Really anything from the Beatles dominated my ears throughout junior high and high school. This one is the ballad of all ballads in my mind.
“I Want You” by Savage Garden – While I was basically a classic rock kind of guy in my later teens, for some reason Savage Garden weaseled their way into my ears and heart. I can’t deny I still enjoy when one of their tunes crosses my path.
But before all of those shuffled onto the speakers of my Jeep Renegade on this frigid Monday afternoon, Tom T. Hall hit the speakers. While Mr. Hall is by no means a new artist, in fact he’s dead. His music is a relative newcomer to my playlists.
I believe I first knowingly encountered his music when one of his Greatest Hits albums was in a box of CDS I bought at a sale.
There was a time in my life where I wouldn’t have given country music like this much of a chance, but that changed slowly over time.
Probably first came Johnny Cash’s American IV released just before his death in 2003 with his haunting cover of Nine Inch Nail’s “Hurt.”
My anti-country bias melted more when I got hooked on The Avett Brothers in the early 2010s (thanks Spotify shuffle). While the Avett Brothers probably don’t fit precisely under the country label, their Americana sound opened the doors for other similar artists. Jason Isbell. Ryan Bingham. James McMurty.
Then came John Prine. What started with enjoying “Lake Marie,” snowballed into loving Mr. Prine’s entire catalog. I am sure a few of his tunes will make this journal throughout the year.
So, you can see, I was primed for Tom T. Hall when I gave his hits album a try. His mix of humor, wit, and heart fell right in line with Prine. And, as this selection provides, I now know the secret to life: “Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and more money.”
No comments:
Post a Comment