69. Wagonmaster

69. Wagonmaster, Porter Wagoner (Anti-, 2007)

Missouri-born Porter Wagoner never quite captured the zeitgeist that allowed some of his contemporaries to resonate outside country and western circles.  An inveterate traditionalist, Wagoner made some mainstream inroads with his long-running TV program The Porter Wagoner Show (’60-’81), its middle years featuring regular cast member and duet partner Dolly Parton.  With his gaudy Nudie suits, bountiful pompadour, and taste for cornpone humor, Wagoner cut a figure that on first blush might seem best relegated to the cast of Hee Haw.  A closer look at his career, though, reveals a firm command of serious material.  Matched only by Cash, Wagoner recorded the earliest country concept albums; efforts like Confessions of a Broken Man (’66) and The Soul of a Convict (’67) go beyond well-worn country tropes of hard luck and show a keen insight on topics like depression and mental illness.  Issuing 81 charting singles since going solo in 1952 after leaving his local group the Blue Ridge Boys, Wagoner well earned his position as ambassador and unofficial host of the Grand Ole Opry.

Like far too many country legends, Wagoner endured a dry spell in the ’80s.  His 35-year deal with RCA ended and he did one-offs for a handful of labels until calling it quits in ’86.  He continued to perform; it wasn’t until 2000, though, that he released another album, the outdated-sounding The Best I’ve Ever Been.  Aside from the fortuitous ’02 Unplugged, his Aughts recordings were then limited to poorly curated gospel compilations in the ghastly tourist-country ghetto of labels like TeeVee.  In ’07, the luck previously afforded a handful of his contemporaries (see #119 and #121) was visited upon Wagoner when a proper, well-equipped record company plucked him from recording obscurity at age 79.  While those artists’ comeback efforts incorporated modern pop covers, rafts of indie-rock guests, or adoring though counterintuitive curators, Wagonmaster presents the artist undistilled and in his own milieu.  Produced by Marty Stuart, himself a country veteran, the album is backed by Stuart’s excellent band and the production is crisp and tasteful.  Like many aged country singers, Wagoner emphasizes material from earlier in his career; a whopping five songs are new recordings of material from his ’71 LP Porter Wagoner Sings His Own.  The pacing is reminiscent of a variety show, with a Stuart-sung hoedown theme opening and closing the record and a similar intermission at midpoint (in which Wagoner joyfully exclaims, “Everybody have a good time, son!”).  The album’s first full song, Be a Little Quieter, is its most celebratory in execution despite its lyrical wish that a departed lover’s memory wouldn’t echo through the narrator’s hallways each night.  Two other early-’70s pieces examine hard life through sunny arrangements: Albert Erving depicts a lifelong bachelor who cherishes a wood carving of an imagined lover, and My Many Hurried Southern Trips, a Parton co-write, is sung by a bus driver who shuttles all manner of troubled souls.  Hotwired, a cover of an ’06 country-rock tune by Arkansas singer Shawn Camp, is a bit of a misfire, yet Wagoner’s delivery is charming.  Wagonmaster’s most famous tune is Committed to Parkview, a Cash composition about a mental hospital in which both men spent time.  Wagoner’s opening recitation ends with “I hope I never have to go there again,” his voice bearing no trace of storytelling gimmickry.  A shining accomplishment after twenty years in record-company wilderness, Wagonmaster stands among the best country albums of the Aughts; sadly, it was Wagoner’s final album, as he succumbed to cancer just four months after its release.

Highlights: Be a Little Quieter, My Many Hurried Southern Trips, Fool Like Me, Brother Harold Dee

Sublime bit: The chiming group vocals that come midway through each verse of Be a Little Quieter are sheer spine-tingling country gold.
 
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Bubbling Under #119. Charlie Louvin

119. Charlie Louvin (Tompkins Square, 2007)

Charlie Louvin and brother Ira sang together for a decade prior to their ’56 debut LP; famed for their close harmony that mixed gospel and the secular, the duo split in ’63 but later influenced many rock artists. Charlie recorded actively into the mid-’70s; Ira died in a ’65 car wreck. Like many country singers, Louvin’s star faded in the ’80s. Austin roots label Watermelon tried to revive it in ’96 with new LP The Longest Train; in ’02, sloppy Tennessee label Country Discovery issued another, The Sound of Days to Come. In his 80th year Louvin received a proper new contract, from NYC’s Americana label Tompkins Square. Its eponymous first fruit boasts a band of new-Nashville pros and a stable of guests, both country vets (George Jones, Tom T. Hall, Marty Stuart, Bobby Bare) and rockers of varying pedigree including Elvis Costello, Will Oldham, and Jeff Tweedy. Four members of Nashville indie outfit Lambchop appear throughout, including Louvin’s co-producer Mark Nevers. Louvin’s writing heyday behind him, covers and rerecordings (including three Louvin Brothers songs) dominate.  The guest vocalists contribute harmonies or the occasional verse, and the music is straight traditional country.  The most notable song is the great Ira, an emotional tribute to his brother that appeared in different form on the ’02 LP. “Your voice is strong, though you are gone/’Cause I still hear your part,” sings Louvin, still devoted to his lost partner 45 years on. Charlie Louvin was a success and by decade’s end he had recorded three more LPs for his new label; the first is the finest, but more important is that after years of poor stewardship Louvin found a capable, supportive record company and a new audience to support him in his twilight years.

Highlights: Ira, The Christian Life, The Kneeling Drunkard’s Plea

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Bubbling Under #121. Van Lear Rose

121. Van Lear Rose, Loretta Lynn (Interscope, 2004)

Country legend Loretta Lynn retired in 1993, having released nothing solely under her name since ’88. Only after her husband died in ’96 did she record the ’00 comeback album Still Country. Two years later, buzz band the White Stripes dedicated their White Blood Cells to Lynn. Intrigued, she reached out to the group, sparking a full-length collaboration released the week of Lynn’s 70th birthday to critical and popular acclaim. While White produced and organized the band (including two future members of White’s side band the Raconteurs), it is notably the first of Lynn’s 50-odd solo albums on which she wrote every song. The LP combines the Nashville country of Lynn’s heyday (Family Tree, This Old House) with heavier, rock-slanted numbers (Have Mercy, Mrs. Leroy Brown). Portland Oregon, a Lynn/White duet spiked with White’s blazing, Jimmy Page-inspired guitar breaks, depicts a romantic barroom encounter; the song’s dark eroticism is further charged by the singers’ 30-year age difference. Lynn is no stranger to controversial lyrics or the rougher side of life, and the album’s lyrics cover adultery and murder; more frequently here, though, they address topics like the simplicity of country life, God’s will, and the importance of home. In the autobiographical, spoken-word Little Red Shoes she tells an agonizing story about her childhood; in album closer The Story of My Life she gives a tongue-in-cheek overview of her life since marriage at 13. Van Lear Rose is a triumph, Lynn’s final record of the decade and one that makes its fans hope her comeback, like that of Johnny Cash’s, bears much more fruit.

Highlights: Portland Oregon, Van Lear Rose, Miss Being Mrs.

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