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.

Glaser was born in Spalding, Nebraska, the son of Alice Harriet Marie (née Davis) and Louis Nicholas Glaser. 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.

In the 1950s he recorded as a solo artist. He and his brothers later formed a trio, Tompall & the Glaser Brothers. In 1957 they performed on Arthur Godfrey's television show. They also shared the bill with Patsy Cline at The Mint casino in Las Vegas November-December 1962.

Glaser's highest-charting solo single was Shel Silverstein's "Put Another Log on the Fire,” which peaked at Billboard Hot Country Singles’ (now Hot Country Songs) No. 21 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).

Tompall co-produced Waylon Jennings's influential 1973 album Honky Tonk Heroes, one of outlaw country’s first albums. 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."

Tompall appeared with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Jessi Colter on the 1976 album Wanted! The Outlaws, the first country album to be certified platinum.

In the 1970s his Nashville recording studio, Glaser Sound Studios, dubbed "Hillbilly Central," was considered the nerve center of the nascent outlaw country movement. 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. Among the groundbreaking albums recorded at his studio were John Hartford's Aereo-Plain and Waylon Jennings' Dreaming My Dreams.

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.

Glaser died on August 12, 2013, in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 79, after a long illness.