The Porter Wagoner Legacy

The Porter Wagoner Show is a studio-bound affair meant to capitalize upon his television success, but if Wagoner was selling out it's because so many were buying. After a decade in the business and a few years with his own TV program, Wagoner had refined his honky tonk into a slicker, more professional beast — a show pony instead of a bucking bronco — smoother than the no-nonsense hard country that made his name. Here he revisits some big hits ("A Satisfied Mind," "I've Enjoyed as Much of This as I Can Stand," "Company's Comin'") backed by the Wagonmasters before an audience that may be live, but is obviously beholden to the "Applause" sign. Second bananas Norma Jean and Curly Harris get their moments to show off as well. Four years before being deposed in favor of Dolly Parton, Miss Norma Jean proves her worth with fine renditions of "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" and "I Want to Live Again." Curly Harris gets to tell some corn pone hillbilly gags about his drunken father and ugly girlfriend ("That was the only girl I ever seen with two backs!"), but the jokes are probably funnier when accompanied by his gawky, pop-eyed visage. The Wagonmasters' instrumental version of "Bill Bailey" is the most down-home moment on the album, but it's still a little too polite for its own good. Porter Wagoner made hotter, harder country records before and after the release of this television souvenir (sponsored by the Chattanooga Medicine Company), but it isn't a total loss, and The Porter Wagoner Show documents an early attempt at the mainstreaming of country-western music.