Anyone know where you can find this letter? As Brent Best says in “Pinball Song,” “Well, I’ll tell ya.” It’s on the back cover of Tom T. Hall‘s 1974 LP, Country Is. It’s a letter of recommendation, not from a fellow country singer or songwriter, nor a producer (like Jerry Kennedy, Tom T’s longtime producer at Mercury), nor an industry exec. No, the recommendation comes from Darrell K Royal, then Texas Longhorns football coach, athletics director, and for all intents and purposes, the architect of Hook ‘Em Horns.
Darrell Royal passed away 10 days ago at the age of 88 from complications due to Alzheimer’s disease and it only seems fitting to remember him on a college football Saturday. He’s one of a handful of semi-old-time coaches I remember learning about from my dad, himself a high school football coach, and a 1956 graduate of the University of Texas. That year is important in Longhorns lore for two reasons. 1) The debut of the Hook ‘Em Horns hand gesture/slogan and 2) Texas finished a dismal 1-9, including a season-ending loss to in-state rival Texas A&M, then coached by a young Bear Bryant. That 1-9 led directly to the firing of Ed Price, the hiring of Darrell Royal, and the Horns dynasty was effectively born.
Royal was also a lifelong patron of the arts, if by arts you mean country music. In the 1970s, he’d host pickin’ parties, where the likes of Merle Haggard, Charley Pride, and Tom T. Hall would swap songs, which pretty much sounds like the greatest Saturday night ever. Of course, he formed his greatest musical friendship with Willie Nelson, whom he called “Little Red,” and who played “Healing Hands of Time” at last week’s memorial service for DKR. This was a poignant gesture, as it’s the same song Willie sang for Darrell and his wife Edith after their daughter Marian died in 1973.
“The big appeal of country music,” Darrell Royal once said, “is the simplicity and honesty of it. All the songs are about some ol’ boy who’s down on his luck or made a mistake he’s gonna have to pay for. Things that have happened to all of us at one time or another.” Tom T. Hall’s genius, according to Royal, was taking these “everyday, common, ordinary people” and making them interesting. In fact, Tom T’s songs were often structured this way, where the arrangement itself was simple and modestly adorned, but Hall’s observations came from a totally unique place, especially relative to the country tradition.
Take “Country Is,” the title track from Hall’s ’74 album. It’s only four verses, with no chorus and no bridge. It’s just a series of statements about what country is and it barely last two minutes. I’m pretty sure that if it was written today there’d be references to driving dusty back roads in your old pickup, drinking cold beer with your best girl, and missing mama’s home cooking. Tom T hints at cliche (sitting on the back porch, walking in the moonlight), but generally avoids it, and has the ability to drop Cartesian philosophical bombs on your ass.
Country is what you make it
Country is all in your mind
I think what Tom T says at the end of the second and fourth verses pretty well sums up the dialectic of the genre. “Country is all in your mind” and “country is all in your heart.” I think it’s deliberate that the song ends with heart because it’s the common (there’s that word again) element to ALL the best music, not just country. And once your heart is in the right place, your brain will do its best work.
From 1985, here’s our man Tom T on Nashville Now, the talk show hosted by Ralph Emery). And while I realize it was his performing style, I can’t be the only one thinking, “What’s a brother gotta do to get a guitar strap???”
Tom T. Hall – Country Is
Country is sitting on the back porch
Listen to the whippoorwills late in the day
Country is minding your business
Helping a stranger if he comes your way
Country is living in the city
Knowing your people knowing your kind
Country is what you make it
Country is all in your mind
Country is working for a living
Thinking your own thoughts loving your town
Country is teaching your children
Find out what’s right and stand your ground
Country is having a good time
Listen to the music singing your part
Country is walking in the moonlight
Country is all in your heart