Popular Culture Review Vol. 10, No. 2, August 1999 | Page 149

Critical Junctions in Country Music

143

The way I pick and sound
Nashville is a groovy little town
(“Nashville is a Groovy Little Town,” 1969)
The impact of Tom T. Hall would have been very limited had he been
only a storyteller. A country singer with a new style and a new manner of present
ing lyrics with his voice was always welcome on the Nashville scene, but Hall
ventured where others had not. He crossed the political barriers that had fenced in
country music for over two decades.
Others with country roots had crossed these barriers and taken their mes
sages national—^but they had done so by leaving Nashville and their country roots.
Some had simply become “cross over” artists such as the Everly Brothers and
Elvis Presley; others such as Kris Kristopherson, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash
had purposely turned on Nashville’s rules to become “outlaws.” Still others, like
Emmy Lou Harris, tied their identities to “folk music,” separating their new music
from traditional country music. Hall could have rejoined the folk music commu
nities, as his lyrics were the lyrics that were being performed by artists at Woodstock,
but he remained true to his roots. His style and his place of performance remained
Nashville. The impact of what he did is best told by examining some of his songs.
Crashing Taboos: The Political Tom T. Hall
Hall’s work, unlike that of all other Nashville country artists before his
time, openly commented on America’s social, political, and environmental troubles.
In “America the Ugly” (1970), the lines take a photograp her from another land on
a tour of the Bowery, Appalachia, enclaves of child and old age poverty, and envi
ronmental degradation. Hall asks if this is the future that we want. Other sides of
“Ugly America” are depicted by another traveler who goes from town to town. In
the first town no one cares about a hanging, in the next, people are laughing at a
“poor crippled man,” while in the third, a peaceful “nice” town, the rich get richer
and the poor get poorer. Disheartened, the traveller sings: “So I washed my face in
the morning dew/.. .And kept on moving along” (“I Washed My Face in the Morn
ing Dew, 1968”).
The country’s anti-war movement as well as the political movement to
hold President Nixon accountable for his misdeeds never really swayed Nashville.
Quite to the contrary, it was to Nashville that Nixon stumed in seeking out his
“middle American” support during the Watergate crises. Nixon was the featured
guest at the grand opening of the new Opryland park and theater. Hall’s answer
was “Watergate Blues”(1973) and a parody on Nixon in “The Monkey Who Be
came the President” (1972). The best examples of Hall’s peace songs include
“100 Children,” (1970) and “Mama Bake a Pie, Daddy Kill a Chicken” (1970).