Country singer Hal Ketchum passed away on November 23rd, more than a year after his wife had announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. While he had plenty of hits throughout the 1990s, the lyrics he wrote often presented a depth beyond what mainstream country radio would typically play. He also connected with his audience in concert in a way that strengthened the lasting appeal of his work.
Born in Greenwich, New York in 1953, Hal Michael Ketchum took on various music-related gigs as a young adult; by 1981 he had moved to Austin, Texas, and it was around this time he started both singing and composing. He released one album of self-composed originals (“Threadbare Alibis”) on an independent label in 1988 before signing with Curb Records. His Curb debut “Past The Point Of Rescue” made him a breakout star while in his late thirties, spinning off four hit singles, starting with the Pat Alger / Hank DeVito-written “Small Town Saturday Night”.
The second single allowed him to show off his own songwriting, with the midtempo “I Know Where Love Lives”.
The two follow-up singles were also covers: Irish singer-songwriter Mick Hanly’s “Past The Point Of Rescue” – a hit in Ireland for the much-beloved singer Mary Black in 1988 – and a slowed-down take on the Vogues’ 1965 classic “Five O’Clock World”, featuring co-production by its co-writer, Allen Reynolds.. Hal would even duet with Mick on the former in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day in 1994, as seen below.
Hal’s 1992 follow-up, “Sure Love”, didn’t sell as well, but actually had more top-10 hits than the last album, thanks to the title cut, “Mama Knows The Highway”, and as heard here, “Hearts Are Gonna Roll”.
In 1994 he was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and made a cameo in the film version of “Maverick”. 1995’s “Every Little Word” gave Hal his final top-10 hit in “Stay Forever”, co-written with Benmont Tench from Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers.
Hal might have been receiving diminishing support from country radio in the late ’90s, but some of his best work was yet to come. In 1998 he released “I Saw The Light”, whose title cut was a sparkling remake of the Todd Rundgren work and a top-40 hit for Hal.
Despite the stronger material, the album didn’t chart. The following year, five of its tracks (not including “I Saw The Light”) were re-recorded and grouped with six new recordings. The outstanding result, the decidedly noncommercial album “Awaiting Redemption”, was released in 1999. (Curiously enough, you can see the drawing from the album’s cover at the two-minute mark of the video for “Past The Point Of Rescue” from eight years earlier!) Highlights include the upbeat “Slow Down Sunset” and a drinking song of sorts that pits a peasant against a king, “The Turn Of The Wheel”.
The following year Hal released the single “She Is”, which became his final top-40 hit, with a video that had him sporting a distinctive goatee. In 2001 it was featured on “Lucky Man”, one of four albums he’d release in the 2000’s.
His final album came in 2014 with “I’m The Troubadour”, which included a couple of self-covers, but he continued to tour until shortly before his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s was revealed last year. It was not his first time dealing with major health issues: in 1998 he was diagnosed with the spinal-column ailment acute transverse myelitis, whose effects included loss of the left side of his body, requiring him to relearn basic tasks at the time.
On September 28, 2006 Hal performed at the Fairfield Theatre Company, not long after it regularly began presenting intimate concerts. He took requests from the audience that night, although he gave a confused look upon hearing one from a woman in the back. “We already did that one,” he explained. “Oh, I must have been in the bathroom!”, the woman replied, to laughs from people around her. He was good-natured about the misunderstanding, and stuck around to sign autographs later on – including one for a QOTDCT staff member who was in attendance that night.
Hal Ketchum certainly had other interests, too, including painting (leading to an exhibit of his work in 2002) and carpentry, especially related to toys, but it’s for his music that he’ll be most remembered. As with many artists in country music and in other genres, his music could not easily be placed into standard record-label categories, but he did still manage to receive a warm reception from country radio for some years. With any luck, his recordings and compositions will soon receive the renewed appreciation they deserve.
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