Hal Ketchum

Hal Michael Ketchum was born on April 9, 1953, in Greenwich, New York. He was the middle of three children. His father worked for newspaper publisher Gannett (now USA Today Co.) and played banjo; his mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while Hal was still a child, and was institutionalized before dying from complications of the disease in 1986. Ketchum and his father listened to artists such as Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and Hank Williams. Ketchum began performing at open mic nights at Gruene Hall, which led to him becoming a regular performer there. He also supported himself financially by building cabinets. In 1987, Ketchum competed in the Kerrville Folk Festival, where he became a finalist. Through this competition he also befriended songwriter Pat Alger. Singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker heard Ketchum perform an original song titled "The Belgian Team" on radio station KUT, and as he was "impressed" by Ketchum's songwriting, he asked his wife Susan to contact the singer. This led to Ketchum serving as an opening act for twelve of Walker's concerts in California in January 1988, in addition to Susan serving as his manager. ==Music career==

19891990: Threadbare Alibis Ketchum began recording his first album in 1985, paying for much of the process himself. Unable to afford audio mixing, Ketchum hid the master recordings under his bed for about eight months when he was contacted by Heinz Geissler, a record executive with German-based Line/Sawdust Records, who financed the album's completion and packaging, and released it under the title Threadbare Alibis in 1989. Line/Sawdust distributed the album in Europe, while rights for distribution in the United States were handled by Austin-based Watermelon Records. Peter Blackstock of the Austin American-Statesman rated the album three out of five stars, praising its folk instrumentation, Ketchum's tenor voice, and "workingman's dilemmas" of his lyrics. As Ketchum wanted to write songs professionally, Alger encouraged him to travel between Austin and Nashville, Tennessee, to "develop his contacts" with members of the latter city's music industry. Among those he came in contact with were record producers Jim Rooney and Allen Reynolds, the latter of whom would also go on to serve as Garth Brooks' producer. and began working with Rooney and Reynolds to record his first album for the label soon afterward. Ketchum wrote or co-wrote seven of its ten songs. "Small Town Saturday Night" was promoted through a music video which incorporated footage from the 1938 Western film The Terror of Tiny Town. Past the Point of Rescue was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for U.S. shipments of 500,000 copies; in 2024, "Small Town Saturday Night" also certified gold for the same number of music downloads. Ketchum promoted the album throughout 1991 by serving as an opening act for Randy Travis. For touring purposes, Ketchum established a road band called the Alibis, consisting of drummer Wes Starr, bassist Keith Carper, and guitarist Scott Neubert. Ketchum said that the album contained "social issues [he] wanted to address", including homelessness in "Daddy's Oldsmobile" and the Trail of Tears in a song of the same name. At the same time, he considered the album "less brooding" than his debut. The album's title track, which Ketchum wrote with Burr, charted at number three on Hot Country Songs in early 1993, followed by "Hearts Are Gonna Roll" at number two and "Mama Knows the Highway" at number eight. The final single was "Someplace Far Away (Careful What You're Dreaming)" with a peak of number 24. Following this album's release, Ketchum co-headlined a tour with Kathy Mattea. An uncredited review in the Newport News, Virginia, Daily Press rated the album four out of five stars, praising the sounds and lyrics of the title track, "Softer Than a Whisper", and "Daddy's Oldsmobile" in particular. 19941996: Every Little Word and The Hits Ketchum 1994 album Every Little Word accounted for five singles. He wrote both of the first two, "(Tonight We Just Might) Fall in Love Again" and "That's What I Get for Losin' You", with former NRBQ member Al Anderson. Dan DeLuca, in a review for The Philadelphia Inquirer re-published in the Orlando Sentinel, praised the two songs co-written with Anderson, as well as the "sadness" of "Veil of Tears" and inclusion of Patty Loveless on "Another Day Gone". Ketchum was inducted as the 71st member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1994. Curb Records founder Mike Curb encouraged Ketchum in 1996 to release a greatest-hits album, as he observed that many of Ketchum's songs had continued to receive strong radio airplay. This compilation, titled The Hits, included ten of his singles, the album track "I Miss My Mary" from Past the Point of Rescue, and three new songs. Among these were covers of Tony Arata's "Satisfied Mind" and Ferlin Husky's "Wings of a Dove". He chose to cover the latter after singing it with Husky at his own Grand Ole Opry induction. This song was released to radio as a single in March 1996. "I Miss My Mary" was also promoted as a single from The Hits. Upon release of The Hits, Ketchum said that he wanted to take the year 1996 off from touring so that he could focus on songwriting. While the project was initially slated for release in August 1997, Ketchum announced the same month that he would be delaying the project and a corresponding tour that would have promoted it, initially citing his entry into drug rehabilitation. Ketchum stated in a 1998 interview with Nashville Scene magazine that he had become addicted to alcohol and opiates, and was convinced by his friends to undergo rehabilitation. According to Ketchum, he and Curb Records executive Chuck Howard mutually agreed not to release Hal Yes after the initial delay, as they thought its more rock and blues-influenced sound would cause it to sell poorly. Howard and Ketchum selected three songs from the Hal Yes sessions and a new batch of "upbeat love songs" recorded under Howard's production, which became his 1998 album I Saw the Light. Thom Owens found the album "uneven" due to the contrast between the songs produced by Howard and those produced by Bruton. Despite the initial rejection of Hal Yes, it was ultimately released in 1999 under the title Awaiting Redemption. He and the label agreed on this release as a condition of I Saw the Light failing to provide a hit single despite its original intent of including radio-friendly songs. Wilfred Langmaid of the Daily Gleaner called the project his "rawest and most vital" since Threadbare Alibis. Another track from the album was the Lisa Brokop duet "Keep Mom and Dad in Love". Curb Records released it as a single, alongside an alternate version recorded by Billy Dean, Suzy Bogguss, and Jillian Jacqueline on Dreamcatcher Records. While this version of the song charted, Ketchum and Brokop's did not. Other contributors to the album included John Cowan, Timothy B. Schmit, and Ricochet. Rick Bell of Country Standard Time praised the variety of collaborators and the "depth of songwriting", and considered "Dreams of Martina" the best-written song. Next on Curb was 2003's The King of Love. Ketchum wrote or co-wrote all but one of fifteen songs on the album, and produced it by himself. The album included appearances by Tim O'Brien, Guy Clark, and Charlie Daniels, as well as a song written by his son Graham called "On Her Own Time". Afterward, he reunited with Reynolds for a recording session in mid-2004 that included "Forever Mine", a song written by Ketchum's then-wife Gina, and a cover of the Del McCoury Band's "My Love Will Not Change". The latter song was released as a single and reached number 60 on the country charts in 2004. In 2006, Ketchum entered Hot Country Songs for the last time with "Just This Side of Heaven (Hal-lelujah)", which peaked at number 47. Despite this, he also played a number of concerts in the United States in 2007, but chose to perform only on weekends so he could spend the rest of the week with his family. Following in 2008 was his last Curb album, Father Time. He recorded the album in two days with no overdubbing or editing. He wrote all but one of the songs on the project, including "The Preacher and Me", the first song he ever wrote. 20092017: ''I'm the Troubadour'', retirement, and death Ketchum took a hiatus from recording in 2009 after complications of multiple sclerosis, with which he had been originally diagnosed in 1999. This severely weakened the singer and resulted in bouts of depression, which he mitigated by moving to a cabin in Wimberley, Texas. After he felt he had regained enough strength to start performing again, he began writing song ideas down in a notebook with the intent of returning to music. He sent recordings to friends as he wanted to sign a new recording contract, which resulted in him signing with Austin-based independent label Music Road Records in 2014. This label released his next studio album, ''I'm the Troubadour'', that same year. The album included a re-recording of "I Know Where Love Lives" featuring Tameca Jones on duet vocals. Ketchum released no more albums after ''I'm the Troubadour'', although he continued to tour and perform until 2018, when he held his last concert at Gruene Hall. Ketchum died at his home in Fischer, Texas, due to complications of dementia, on November 23, 2020, at the age of 67. ==Musical styles==

Ketchum's music is defined by his folk music-styled songwriting, minimalist production, and vocal tone. AllMusic writer Sandra Brennan stated that he was "known for his succinct, often poignant songwriting style" and "emerged at the dawn of the 1990s with an engaging folk-driven sound". Also reviewing the same album, Mike Curtin of The Post-Star described Ketchum as having a "plaintive tenor voice" with comparisons to Roy Orbison and Lyle Lovett. In The Encyclopedia of Country Music, Clark Parsons called Ketchum "a male version of Mary Chapin Carpenter: folk-tinged, intellectual, and honest." David J. Spatz, writing for the Press of Atlantic City, characterized Ketchum's voice as a "slightly gritty tenor" and noted that he usually recorded his vocals in only one take. He also made note of Ketchum's tendency to write his own songs, as well as his storytelling lyrics. Michael Corcoran of the Dallas Morning News thought Ketchum's voice had an "inherent smoothness"; both he and Jim Macnie of New Country also compared his voice to Lovett, As the early years of his career were spent in Texas, Ketchum cited a number of singer-songwriters from that state as inspiration, such as Lovett, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Townes Van Zandt. Spatz noted themes of "divergent aspirations of a young couple" in "Someplace Far Away", and thought that songs such as "Sure Love" had "memorable" lyrics. Similarly, Corcoran noted Ketchum's use of wordplay in "That's What I Get for Losin' You". Macnie thought the lyrics of "I Know Where Love Lives" showed a "populist" approach due to their "disdain for the privileged life". He also thought that Ketchum's use of a small backing band reflected an "unaffected" approach to his music. According to Rooney, Ketchum's recording sessions usually involved only three other musicians at a time, as opposed to other acts he worked with who often used as many as nine. Regarding his physical appearance, Parsons noted the "sex appeal of his long salt-and-pepper mane", while Macnie wrote that he resembled "a mix of Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Don Johnson." Neil Pond of Country America characterized him as "dashingly handsome", and also noted that he had graying hair and "bushy eyebrows". ==Personal life==

Ketchum's first marriage was to the former Barbara Schell. The couple had one daughter and three sons together. In June 1998, Ketchum was diagnosed with a neurological disorder called transverse myelitis, an ailment of the spinal column, which left him without the use of the left side of his body. This required him to re-learn how to play guitar, and Ketchum later recalled he was "virtually paralyzed for about six weeks." He cited recovery from myelitis, along with his marriage to Giglio, as other factors that delayed the progress of his career in the late 1990s. Following his 1999 diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, he began corresponding with Montel Williams, who had also been diagnosed with the disease. This led to the two performing concerts together to raise money for a charity founded by Williams to sponsor multiple sclerosis research. Ketchum was also a painter and often signed his paintings "Heck". His work has been displayed at Pena Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he had an opening in 2002. He was also a master carpenter and enjoyed building toys and woodworking. ==Discography==

;Studio albums • Threadbare Alibis (1989) • Past the Point of Rescue (1991) • Sure Love (1992) • Every Little Word (1994) • I Saw the Light (1998) • Awaiting Redemption (1999) • Lucky Man (2001) • The King of Love (2003) • One More Midnight (2007) • Father Time (2008) • ''I'm the Troubadour'' (2014) ==References==