It’s the sort of songwriting style one would likely immediately associate with country music, yet it’s still uniquely Hall’s alone. Therein lies the paradox with his work: Hall’s easygoing, conversational style carries a natural surface appeal that’s warm and inviting, but it’s sharply detailed material where the true meaning can pass one by if they’re sucked in to the atmosphere and don’t pay enough attention to the stories told. Hall may have sang about regular people with the precision of a journalist chronicling every seemingly minute detail, but even he couldn’t help how those everyday experiences contained subtle moments of extraordinary insight.
At the least, it will certainly entertain.And yet, I can’t help it.
But if you’re already on the right track, Hall’s volume can probably reassure and encourage you. As I’ve said, I doubt the author’s advice on getting ideas, rhyme, meter, and the rest can teach you much. My strong objections notwithstanding, however, Hall’s book does deserve a reading by aspiring songwriters. Hall features an interesting but only marginally relevant 20-page autobiography, for example he includes an outdated map of Nashville’s “Music Row” and 10 pages of wholly unnecessary bad snapshots of himself finally, while the inclusion of some of the author’s lyrics and sheet music was probably a good idea, the 16 pages of Hall compositions here seem a bit much.
Moreover, even though the book runs less than 160 pages, it suffers from a plethora of filler. If you do possess some basic songwriting talent, on the other hand, you may find much of Hall’s material to be obvious, irrelevant, or both. If you haven’t got what it takes, no volume is going to put your name on the charts. It won’t, of course, and therein lies the main fallacy of How I Write Songs, Why You Can. Underlying the text is the assumption that mastering some simple “rules and tools” and learning a bit of music biz terminology will make composing as easy as A-B-C. Hall (“Harper Valley PTA,” “Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine,” etc.) purports to explain how almost anyone can become successful at his craft. In this worthwhile albeit flawed first book, songwriter Tom T.
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