Sawdust and Tinsel: Porter Wagoner

Porter Wagoner shakes me up. He sings of the cold hard facts, the promise of murder, lock-downs in rubber rooms, and the power of the lord, sometimes alongside beatific, brilliant Dolly Parton and her sweet face, her gorgeous peroxide hair and her plentiful bosom and I just think...there's something so profound going on here.

Subterranean. Fathomless. American, but far beyond that. Dance of the Spirits. Or, to quote Mr. Young, "Aurora borealis, the icy sky at night." Cries and whispers.

If only Wagoner had worked with Ingmar Bergman. He's the Antonius Block of country music.

Comments

[jbryant]

This reminds me that Porter Wagoner's last album, WAGONMASTER, was quite well received. I always meant to pick it up--or pull strings with my good friend who's affiliated with the label, Anti. :)

And yeah, I do get a Von Sydow vibe from the man.

[steve mowrey]

The promise of murder. Wonderful.

[david simmons]

I'm not a big Porter Wagoner fan, but this is a great song, written by Bill Anderson.

[growler]

If you get the RFD network (DirecTV carries it, I know for sure), they show old episodes of "The Porter Wagoner Show."

[Fiddlin' Bill Hicks]

Check out "Carroll County Accident" sometime. And I don't think he wrote this one, but "I Was Watching from the Window Up Above" has a noir cast that's as perfect as "Touch of Evil." Thanks for pointing out something wonderfully deep and true--classic country is one of the genres of music that can be the sound track for the noir sensibility.

Oh--one more ref--check out David Alan Coe's "River."

[Rex]

Porter was a brilliant, talented, complicated man who contained a boundless human goodness as well as enough darkness to make him more than interesting. It was great to see him exit the stage on a high note with the Wagonmaster album.