In Search of a Song

In Search of a Song
Studio album by Tom T. Hall
Released 1971
Recorded May 1971, Mercury Custom Recording Studio, Nashville, Tennessee, except tracks 1 & 9, recorded March 26, 1971
Genre Country music, Progressive country
Label Mercury
Producer Jerry Kennedy
Tom T. Hall chronology
One Hundred Children
(1970)One Hundred Children1970		 In Search of a Song
(1971)		 We All Got Together and...
(1972)We All Got Together and...1972
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [1]
Robert ChristgauA[2]
Rolling Stone(favorable)[3]

In Search of a Song is a 1971 album by country singer and songwriter, Tom T. Hall. The album includes eleven songs based on Hall's observations of rural life. It became a number eight top country album and the opening track, "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died" became a number one country single.

History

In Search of a Song was released amid Hall's years with Mercury Records (1969–1977) during which he released one or more albums each year (see Tom T. Hall discography). It is the first full album to result from one of Hall's "song-hunting" trips to Kentucky. Hall was known to make periodic visits to rural Kentucky. He didn't actually write songs on these trips so much as take notes and gather raw material that he would later write about. He typically traveled backroads by car, sometimes with a photographer, to find inspiration by observing and visiting with the common people of his home state. On this particular trip, Hall traveled with music journalist William "Bill" Neuel Littleton of Nashville, TN. Littleton took the photographs that appear on the album's front and back cover, subsequently writing the album's liner notes. [4]

Track listing

All songs by Tom T. Hall

  1. "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died" - 2:42
  2. "Who's Gonna Feed Them Hogs" - 2:35
  3. "Trip to Hyden" - 2:52
  4. "Tulsa Telephone Book" - 2:21
  5. "It Sure Can Get Cold in Des Moines" - 2:53
  6. "The Little Lady Preacher" - 2:53
  7. "L.A. Blues" - 2:40
  8. "Kentucky, February 27, 1971" - 3:16
  9. "A Million Miles to the City" - 2:51
  10. "Second Handed Flowers" - 2:55
  11. "Ramona's Revenge" - 2:53

Personnel

Musicians

Production

Charts

year chart peak
1971 U.S. Top Country 8
1971 U.S. 200 137

Releases

year format label catalog #
1971 LP Mercury 822500-1
Mercury SR-61350
cassette Mercury 822500-4
2005 reissue CD Mercury
2005 compilation CD Hux 71
2006 remastered CD Hip-O Select 000424002

References

  1. ↑ McCall, Michael, "Review: In Search of a Song", Allmusic
  2. ↑ Christgau, Robert. "In Search of a Song". Robert Christgau.
  3. ↑ Cromelin, Richard "Review: Tom T. Hall, In Search of a Song", Rolling Stone, January 6, 1972 (link via rocksbackpages.com)
  4. ↑ Wolfe, Charles, K., Kentucky Country, University of Kentucky Press, 1982, p.146
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