Real: The Tom T. Hall Project

Amazon.com
This celebration of one of country's most prolific and engaging songwriters is a long-time-coming labor of love for producers Mark Linn and Justin Bass. If it works, chalk it up to the range of performers and the imagination lent to sterling songs. Linn and Bass juxtapose legends like Johnny Cash--who offers a pared-down American Recordings-style take on "I Washed My Face in the Morning Dew"--and Ralph Stanley with alternative country upstarts like Kelly Willis, Syd Straw, and Calexico. Whiskeytown reinvents "I Hope It Rains at My Funeral" through Ryan Adams's scrappy vagabond's voice and winds up with a wholly faithful, wholly new classic. Joe Henry turns "Homecoming" into a trip-country dance mix á la Beck--the result is eerie, unveiling the song's most secret emotions. Only a few interpretations miss the mark: Joel R. L. Phelps's tortured vocal beats down the subtle humor of "Spokane Motel Blues," and Jonny Polonsky simply sounds lost with "Old Enough to Want (Fool Enough to Try)." Some of the best versions are the most spare and vulnerable: Mark Olson and Victoria Williams harmonize mildly on "It Sure Can Get Cold in Des Moines," and Richard Buckner is alone with just guitar on "When Love Is Gone." Few tribute albums are this rewarding, start to finish: if you're not yet a fan of Tom T. Hall's songwriting, you will be. --Roy Kasten

Tracks:

I Washed My Face In The Mornig Dew - Johnny Cash
That's How I Got To Memphis - Kelly Willis
When Love Is Gone - Richard Buckner
Don't Forget The Coffee Billy Joe - R.B. Morris
Coffee, Coffee, Coffee - Freedy Johnston
Old Enough To Want To (Fool Enough To Try) - Jonny Polonsky
Ships Go Out - Ron Sexsmith
I Miss A Lot Of Trains - Iris DeMent
Tulsa Telephone Book - Calexico
Harper Valley P.T.A. - Syd Straw & The Skeletons
Spokane Motel Blues - Joel R.L. Phelps
Homecoming - Joe Henry
The Water Lily - Ralph Stanley featuring Ralph Stanley II
I'm Not Ready Yet - The Mary Janes
Candy In The Window - Mary Cutrufello
I Hope It Rains At My Funeral - Whiskeytown
It Sure Can Get Cold In Des Moines - Mark Olson with Victoria Williams

Amazon.com

This celebration of one of country's most prolific and engaging songwriters is a long-time-coming labor of love for producers Mark Linn and Justin Bass. If it works, chalk it up to the range of performers and the imagination lent to sterling songs. Linn and Bass juxtapose legends like Johnny Cash--who offers a pared-down American Recordings-style take on "I Washed My Face in the Morning Dew"--and Ralph Stanley with alternative country upstarts like Kelly Willis, Syd Straw, and Calexico. Whiskeytown reinvents "I Hope It Rains at My Funeral" through Ryan Adams's scrappy vagabond's voice and winds up with a wholly faithful, wholly new classic. Joe Henry turns "Homecoming" into a trip-country dance mix á la Beck--the result is eerie, unveiling the song's most secret emotions. Only a few interpretations miss the mark: Joel R. L. Phelps's tortured vocal beats down the subtle humor of "Spokane Motel Blues," and Jonny Polonsky simply sounds lost with "Old Enough to Want (Fool Enough to Try)." Some of the best versions are the most spare and vulnerable: Mark Olson and Victoria Williams harmonize mildly on "It Sure Can Get Cold in Des Moines," and Richard Buckner is alone with just guitar on "When Love Is Gone." Few tribute albums are this rewarding, start to finish: if you're not yet a fan of Tom T. Hall's songwriting, you will be. --Roy Kasten

Customer Reviews:

tom T .......2005-09-02

tom t. hall is one of the great american artist of our time. although i've never felt he has been justly recognized. perhaps that situation has changed a bit with this cd. this is a must have cd for any serious collector of american music. kelly willis' performance on 'that's how i got to memphis' is worth the price of admission. (and could be subtitled 'that's how i got to heaven'...lol)

Fantastic but not obvious.......2003-11-08

When I first got this CD, I was very disappointed. I wrote it off. But after a couple of years, gave it another try. It has grown on me so much that if I could only have 1 CD, this would be the one. Tom T. Hall's genius is his songwriting. Many of these interpretations exceed his performance of the songs. Give this CD a chance. It is a true gem.

Mercy..........2003-10-19

I'm not a huge country music fan, but the tracks on this CD are breathtaking. Johnny Cash's cover will give you goose bumps; Whiskeytown's cover will make you just want to get drunk and cry all night. This CD has lead to me buying several other Tom T Hall records and enjoying them all.

A fine tribute to a great Country singer-songwriter.......1999-07-25

Country music's great lost missing link gets the tribute cd that's been long overdue. Instead of a toothless Nashville only tribute (i.e. Arista's Haggard tribute a few years back), we get a lot of other singer-songwriters covering chestnut's from Hall's catalog. The best tracks are easily from Kelly Willis and Iris DeMent. And while a few of these 17 interpretations don't work, for the most part this is a fine tribute.

A good but inconsistent introduction to Tom T. Hall's music........1999-07-24

"Real: The Tom T. Hall Project" brings together some of the finest country and popular music artists in the industry today, and provides an excellent cross-section of the songwriter's best work. Unfortunately, some of the performances fail to do justice to the quality of the material at hand. Highlights include Johnny Cash on "I Washed My Face in the Morning Dew," Kelly Willis covering "That's How I Got to Memphis," Calexico's version of "Tulsa Telephone Book," Syd Straw's biting rendition of "Harper Valley PTA," and the haunting, almost otherworldly sound of Mark Olson and Victoria Williams singing "It Sure Can Get Cold in Des Moines." Hall's classic "I Hope it Rains at My Funeral" also stands out as a winner. However, Iris DeMent, Joe Henry and Freedy Johnston seemed to have more difficulty in mastering the intimacy of the stories that these songs tell. The rockabilly bounce of "Don't Forget the Coffee, Billy Joe" falls flat, and "When Love Is Gone" just comes across as maudlin. Perhaps the most accurate way to describe this album is that it serves as an interesting, often brilliant, but erratic introduction to Tom T. Hall's impressive skills as a composer, which are worth hearing more extensively on his own recordings.

Music Album:

Music Album