Porter Wagoner – Essential

Porter Wagoner is one of the most significant figures in the history of post-Hank Williams country music. Along with host Red Foley, Wagoner was a star on the legendary late-50s radio show Ozark Jubilee, which had Springfield, Missouri, challenging Nashville several years before Bakersfield got on the map. Later, as the host of the The Porter Wagoner Show on TV, he helped pave the way for Hee Haw and The Nashville Network. During the shows 11-year run, he introduced the world to one of country musics most undeservedly forgotten artists, Miss Norma Jean, as well as one its most unforgettable stars, Dolly Parton. Wagoners rhinestone-covered Nudie suits and architecturally unsound hairdos established the look that would become shorthand for country singer (at least until George Strait came along), and today, Wagoner has replaced Roy Acuff as the unofficial public face of the Grand Ole Opry.

All this, and I still havent mentioned his music. For that, I recommend RCAs new 20-song set, The Essential Porter Wagoner. Excluding the many classic duets he recorded and often co-wrote with Parton, it does a fine job of surveying Wagoners most important solo recordings.

Each of his 14 Top-10 solo hits are here, and together they offer a powerful statement of the Porter Wagoner aesthetic. Unlike contemporaries George Jones and Conway Twitty, Wagoner was never blessed with a show-stopping voice. His baritone had little range and often flirted with being flat, but he was able to overcome his technical limitations by investing his performances with as much just-folks sincerity as any country singer going. Fittingly then, he regularly recorded in the form that could most take advantage of his pained, earnest delivery: the recitation. His 1966 recitation hit Skid Row Joe is about an old country star who has been ruined by alcohol but who swears things are going to change and when Wagoner says, in the mans unconvincing voice, But Im gonna quit/Yes sir, Im gonna quit, its enough to make even the most jaded 90s listener have to swallow hard. Red Sovines less-successful cover of If Jesus Came To Your House (What Would You Do) merely comes off judgmental, but Wagoners 1955 version somehow sounds like hes condemning his own hypocrisy as much as his listeners.

As a singer, Wagoner was often drawn to nostalgic numbers, no doubt recalling his childhood in West Plains, Missouri, On Companys Comin (his first hit) and Big Wind (country musics greatest-ever tornado song), his exuberant delivery vividly captured the ups and downs of an Ozark youth. Wagoner was also an aching, straight-up honky-tonk singer, especially when he had songs as strong as Bill Andersons Ive Enjoyed As Much Of This As I Can Stand, or such country classics as I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name, Eat, Drink And Be Merry (For Tomorrow You Cry), Sorrow On The Rocks and Misery Loves Company.

His finest moments, however, came when he chose story songs. Theres something about Wagoners almost conversational singing style that instantly renders him an honest and convincing narrator, and nowhere is this truer than on his 1967 recording of The Cold Hard Facts Of Life, a Bill Anderson murder drama that more than lives up to its title. Nearly as good are Wago_ners versions of Carroll County Accident and of Curly Put_nams standard Green Green Grass Of Home, two equally fatal morality tales that Wagoner fills with a straightforward and honest pathos. The rest of the disc is only a step or two behind.

Still, when youre trying to pick and choose from a body of work as deep and significant as Wagoners solo career, important moments are bound to be missed, especially when youre limited to just one disc. So allow me a few nominations for that much-needed RCA follow-up, The Essential Porter Wagoner, Vol. 2: a cut from his 1962 duet album with Skeeter Davis; a selection from one of his three albums with southern gospel quartet the Blackwood Brothers; any of his top-20 hits that didnt make the cut this time around, but especially his 1967 version of Waylon Jennings Julie, his 1962 suicide tale Cold, Dark Waters, and his 1964 hit Im Gonna Feed You Now (the story of a man whos proud-to-bustin because hes found work); a couple of his many great non-single album tracks, such as You Gotta Have A License and Banks Of The Ohio; a cut or two from his three 1960s live albums; and, finally, a few representative selections from his many classic theme LPs, including The Bluegrass Story (1965), Soul Of A Convict And Other Great Prison Songs (1967), and The Farmer (1973).

That all of the omitted performances above, as well as each of the hits included on this disc, arent as well-known and respected today as those by many lesser country figures is a true injustice. Though he is often remembered today as just some goofy-looking old guy with silly suits and big hair, Wagoner is in reality one of country musics most significant figures. Finally, The Essential Porter Wagoner has given the Thin Man From West Plains his due.