The Nashville we know today is a glitzy big business characterized by entertainment lawyers, social media strategies, and buff, shiny entertainers writing about pick-up trucks, tractors, and dirt roads in air-conditioned, corporate offices. But, back before the coats of glamour and media spotlights, Nashville was a very different place.
“The Storyteller’s Nashville” is about a fabled town that once was, but no longer exists. The Nashville that Tom T. Hall wrote about -- the “hairy-legged town” where hungry, broke musicians searched for their next meal, pill-popping pickers scammed their next hit, and writers found art in moments of quiet, solitary desperation - is the true foundation upon which today’s modern Music City rests. “The Storyteller’s Nashville” is also about a man whose songs irrevocably altered the history of that same town as well as the music for which it remains best known. And, while “The Storyteller’s Nashville” is no longer an up-to-date picture of Music City, it is a valuable window into the nature of the art and creation during its formative days. In the early 1980s, someone asked Johnny Cash what Nashville was really like. Cash said, “Just read The Storyteller’s Nashville by Tom T. Hall. Everything you need to know is in there.”
Tom T. Hall is a Country Music Hall of Famer for many reasons, including the hit songs he wrote, his three decades as a popular entertainer, and the fact that he and a wild-eyed pack of youngsters that included Kris Kristofferson, Roger Miller, Mickey Newbury and John Hartford elevated the language of country music from simple tales into something akin to literature. The wondrous George Jones called Hall “By far the all-time greatest songwriter/storyteller that country music has ever had.”
Initially published in 1979, this revised and expanded edition of The Storyteller’s Nashville includes Tom T. Hall’s thoughts on the years after 1979: he shares his deep friendship with Jimmy Carter; brings us Johnny Cash’s thoughts on humility; and reflects on the challenging confluences of celebrity, art and the most dangerous addiction known to musicians: applause.
“The Storyteller’s Nashville” is illuminating and hilarious, ribald and touching and, above all, entertaining. It’s Tom T.’s greatest song and it’s now longer. And even better.
Author Biography:
Thomas "Tom T." Hall, music songwriter, singer, novelist, and short-story writer, is considered a Country Music icon. Elected to the Country Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2011, he has written 11 No. 1 hit songs and 26 more that reached the Top 10, including the No. 1 international smash "Harper Valley PTA" and the hit "I Love." Hall’s storytelling skills and his detail-rich songs sharpened and elevated the language of country music and earned him the nickname "The Storyteller." An integral part of the Nashville music scene for fifty-years and an inspiration to generations of artists ranging from Johnny Cash to Patty Griffin, Tom T. Hall was called by George Jones, “By far the all-time greatest songwriter/storyteller that country music has ever had.” Peter Cooper is one of the nation’s most respected country music journalists. As a reporter for the Tennessean since 2000, he has written about music and musicians, profiling notables from Johnny Cash to Taylor Swift, and winning numerous awards along the way. His work has also appeared in Esquire, Oxford American, Mix and American Songwriter magazines, and in liner notes for albums from Country Music Hall of Fame members Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Cowboy Jack Clement, Ronnie Milsap and Mac Wiseman. He wrote the inscription on George Jones’ tombstone. Cooper is also a Grammy-nominated producer and a singer-songwriter. He has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, A Prairie Home Companion, The Tonight Show and The Late Show with David Letterman. A senior lecturer at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, Cooper teaches a course on the History of Country Music, educating Vanderbilt scholars about the music’s treasured artists and instruments and its place in American culture.
