Tompall Glaser
Thomas Paul "Tompall" Glaser (September 3, 1933 – August 12, 2013) was an American country singer who was a key figure in the 1970s outlaw country movement.[2]
Tompall Glaser
Thomas Paul Glaser
September 3, 1933
Spalding, Nebraska, U.S.
August 12, 2013 (aged 79)
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Singer-songwriter
Vocals, guitar
1950–2013
MGM/Curb, ABC, RCA Victor Dot/MCA, Bear Family, Clint Miller
Biography[edit]
Glaser was born in Spalding, Nebraska, the son of Alice Harriet Marie (née Davis) and Louis Nicholas Glaser.[3][4] He was raised on a farm along with his brothers Jim and Chuck. Growing up, Glaser and his brothers performed music in local venues and radio stations.[5]
In the 1950s, he recorded as a solo artist. He later formed a trio with brothers Chuck and Jim called Tompall & the Glaser Brothers.[3] In 1957, he and his brothers performed on Arthur Godfrey's television show.[5] They also shared the bill with Patsy Cline at The Mint casino in Las Vegas, from November to December 1962.
Glaser's highest-charting solo single was Shel Silverstein's "Put Another Log on the Fire", which peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles (now Hot Country Songs) charts in 1975. He and his brothers also reached number 2 on the country charts with Lovin' Her Was Easier (than Anything I'll Ever Do Again).[6]
Tompall co-produced Waylon Jennings's influential 1973 album Honky Tonk Heroes, considered to be one of the first albums of the outlaw period.[6] Honky Tonk Heroes has been called a "milestone album in the breaking of the Nashville studio/recording system, a true watershed event in the music business."[6]
Tompall appeared with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Jessi Colter on the 1976 album Wanted! The Outlaws. The album was the first ever in country music to be certified platinum for sales of over one million copies.[2]
In the 1970s his Nashville recording studio Glaser Sound Studios, dubbed "Hillbilly Central," was considered the nerve center of the nascent outlaw country movement.[2] Glaser ran the studio with his brothers and gave musicians control over what they recorded instead of their producers, unlike other Nashville studios of the time.[2] Among the groundbreaking albums recorded at his studio were John Hartford's Aereo-Plain and Waylon Jennings' Dreaming My Dreams.[5]
Glaser and his brothers also ran a music publishing company that allowed songwriters to retain ownership and control of their material, which was also unusual for the time period.[2]
Glaser died on August 12, 2013, in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 79, after a long illness.[7] He was survived by his wife, June Johnson Glaser. His brother, Jim, died of a heart attack on April 6, 2019, at the age of 81. His brother, Chuck, died two months later on June 10, 2019, at the age of 83.