Great Porter Wagoner - Wagonmaster Review
Porter Wagoner - 4 Stars Don't expect Johnny Cash-style covers from the country great. The king of the Nudie suit is fine as he is
Graeme Thomson Sunday May 20, 2007
The Observer
Porter Wagoner is proper country. A ludicrously garbed, extravagantly quiffed beanpole from the Ozarks who has served due time in the saloons, asylums, divorce courts and - lately - hospitals of America, at 79 he wouldn't know how to reinvent himself even if confronted with a Smith & Wesson. Wagoner cut 'Satisfied Mind' in 1954, inspiring covers by everyone from Bob Dylan to Jeff Buckley; joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1957; and recorded 'The Green Green Grass of Home' while Tom Jones was still interrogating his pussycat. He discovered Dolly Parton in 1967, squiring her to stardom via countless duets on his hugely successful TV show. When Dolly went solo, she wrote 'I Will Always Love You' about him, although at the time the feeling wasn't mutual.
Lately, Wagoner's sad, sleepy dog's voice has been working for the Lord, but a prolonged gospel kick hasn't messed up his honky-tonk feng shui. Wagonmaster plugs directly into the organic weirdness that lies at the heart of all great country music, covering everything from sonorous recitations about oddball barbers to 'hot wired' women to the boiling depths of Satan's River with equal conviction. Magnificent, mawkish, occasionally plain mad, it emphasises Wagoner's thoroughbred pedigree throughout. A moving reverie on watching Hank Williams in the flesh re-enforces his links with the golden age of country, while Johnny Cash chimes in from the great beyond with 'Committed to Parkview', a blackly comic tale of psychological dissonance written for Wagoner in 1983, acting as a sequel to Porter's own off-the-wall rehab classic 'The Rubber Room'.
Both men know this dark terrain well, but comparisons only muddy the waters. Despite a hip record label, recent gigs at Joe's Pub in Manhattan, and appearances with Neko Case, Wagonmaster won't inspire the Lazarus-like resurrection Cash latterly enjoyed. Refusing to tilt at contemporary songs or styles, the music doesn't possess that kind of boundary-blasting reach, while Wagoner lacks the monolithic presence required to unite a variety of disparate audiences. And anyway, when did you ever see Cash in a jewel-encrusted lavender Nudie suit? There's really no need to impose such unrealistic expectations upon Wagonmaster. An eccentric, heartfelt, often brilliant album from a country music giant is reason enough to celebrate.