Porter Wagoner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Porter Waggoner)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

Porter Wayne Wagoner (August 12, 1927 – October 28, 2007)[1] was an American country music singer known for his flashy Nudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour.

In 1967, he introduced singer Dolly Parton on his television show, The Porter Wagoner Show. She became part of a well-known vocal duo with him from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.

Known as Mr. Grand Ole Opry, Wagoner charted 81 singles from 1954 to 1983. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002.[2]

Biography

Early life and career

Wagoner was born in West Plains, Missouri, United States,[1] the fifth and last child, and second son, of Bertha May (née Bridges) and Charles E. Wagoner, a farmer.[3] His first band, the Blue Ridge Boys, performed on radio station KWPM-AM from a butcher shop in his native West Plains, where Wagoner cut meat.[2] In 1951, he was hired by Si Siman as a performer on KWTO in Springfield, Missouri.[4] This led to a contract with RCA Victor.[1]

With lagging sales, Wagoner and his trio played schoolhouses for the gate proceeds; but in 1953, his song "Trademark" became a hit for Carl Smith,[2] followed by a few hits of his own for RCA Victor. Starting in 1955, he was a featured performer on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee in Springfield.[1] He often appeared on the show as part of the Porter Wagoner Trio with Don Warden and Speedy Haworth. Warden, on steel guitar, became Wagoner's long-time business manager. In 1957, Wagoner and Warden moved to Nashville, Tennessee, joining the Grand Ole Opry.[4]

Chart success

Wagoner's 81 charted records include "A Satisfied Mind" (number one, 1955), "Misery Loves Company" (number one, 1962), "I've Enjoyed as Much of This as I Can Stand" (number seven, 1962–1963), "Sorrow on the Rocks" (number five, 1964), "Green, Green Grass of Home" (number four, 1965), "Skid Row Joe" (number three, 1965–1966), "The Cold Hard Facts of Life" (number two, 1967), and "The Carroll County Accident" (number two, 1968–1969).[2]

Among his hit duets with Dolly Parton were a remake of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind" (1967), "We'll Get Ahead Someday" (1968), "Just Someone I Used to Know" (1969), "Daddy Was An Old Time Preacher Man" (1970), "Better Move It on Home" (1971), "The Right Combination" (1972), "Please Don't Stop Loving Me" (number one, 1974), and "Making Plans" (number two, 1980).[5] He also won three Grammy Awards for gospel recordings.

Television series

His syndicated television program, The Porter Wagoner Show, aired from 1960 to 1981,[1] with 686 30-minute episodes taped, the first 104 (1960–66) in black-and-white and the remainder (1966–81) in color. At its peak, his show was featured in over 100 markets, with an average viewership over three million.[6] Reruns of the program air on the rural cable network RFD-TV and its sister channel in the UK Rural TV.

File:Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, 1971 (cropped).png
Wagoner and Dolly Parton in 1971

The shows usually featured opening performances by Wagoner with performances by Norma Jean, or later Dolly Parton,[1] and comedic interludes by Speck Rhodes. During Parton's tenure, Wagoner and she usually sang a duet.[7] Each episode also featured a guest who would usually perform one or two songs. A spiritual or gospel performance was almost always featured toward the end of the show, generally performed by either Wagoner, Parton, or the show's guest star, or occasionally the entire cast. After Parton left the show, Porter began taping the show at Opryland USA in various locations around the park.

The shows had a friendly, informal feel, with Wagoner trading jokes with band members (frequently during songs) and exchanging banter with Dolly Parton and Don Howser. In 1974, Parton's song "I Will Always Love You", written about her professional break from Wagoner, went to number one on the country music chart.[8]

Wagoner's stage alter ego was Skid Row Joe. The cast included:

  • Singer Norma Jean (1960–1965)
  • Singer Jeannie Seely (1965–1966)
  • Singer Dolly Parton (1967–1974)
  • Singer Barbara Lea (1974–1976)
  • Singer Linda Carol Moore (1976–1978)
  • Singer Mel Tillis (1968 regular)
  • Comedian/stand-up bass Curly Harris (1960–mid 1960s)
  • Announcer Don Howser

The Wagonmasters

1961

Don Warden on steel guitar
"Little" Jack Little on fiddle
Benny Williams on banjo and guitar (1961)
Speck Rhodes Comedian/stand-up bass

Mid-1960s

Buck Trent on banjo and guitar
George McCormick on rhythm guitar
Mack Magaha on fiddle
Ray Downs on rhythm guitar and vocal
Michael Treadwell on bass guitar
Shannon Randolph Porter on lead guitar

After 1974

Bruce Osborn on lead guitar
Fred Newell on banjo/guitar/mandolin
Dave Kirby on guitar
Stu Basore on steel guitar/dobro
Bobby Dyson on bass
Jerry Carrigan on drums
Mack Magaha on fiddle
Colene Walters on vocals/harmonica
Mike Pearson on lead guitar

Later work

File:Porter Wagoner (3467619052) (cropped).jpg
Wagoner in May 2007

Wagoner brought James Brown to the Grand Ole Opry, produced a rhythm and blues album for Joe Simon, and appeared in the Clint Eastwood film Honkytonk Man.[9] During the mid 1980s, Wagoner formed an all-girl group, the Right Combination, named after one of his hit records with Parton, and toured with them for several years.[1] He also hosted Opry Backstage during the 1990s on The Nashville Network. Though Parton's departure was difficult for both, the two reconciled in the late 1980s and appeared together a number of times in the following years.[1] Parton inducted Wagoner into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002.

Wagoner made a guest appearance on the HBO comedy series Da Ali G Show in 2004, its second season, interviewed by Borat Sagdiyev.

Wagoner was honored on August 12, 2007, his 80th birthday, at the Grand Ole Opry for his 50 years of membership.[1] It was telecast on GAC's Grand Ole Opry Live that day, with artists including Parton, Marty Stuart, and Patty Loveless. Grand Ole Opry Live host Nan Kelley was part of the birthday celebration.

On June 5, 2007, Wagoner released his final album, called Wagonmaster.[1] Produced by Stuart for the Anti- label, the album received the best reviews of Wagoner's career and briefly appeared on the country chart.[1] A music video was also produced of one of the tracks, a cover of Johnny Cash's "Committed to Parkview". He toured during the summer of 2007 to promote the album, including a late-July appearance on Late Show with David Letterman. One of these performances was to open for the rock group the White Stripes at a sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Personal life and death

Wagoner was married twice, to Velma Johnson for less than a year in 1943 and to Ruth Olive Williams from 1946 to 1986, though they separated 20 years before the divorce. He fathered three children, Richard, Denise, and Debra.[10]

Wagoner, a heavy smoker, died from lung cancer[11] in Nashville on October 28, 2007, with his family and Dolly Parton at his side.[12] His funeral was held November 1, 2007, at the Grand Ole Opry House. He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville.

Legacy

Dolly Parton performed a concert at her theme park Dollywood in Wagoner's memory after his death.[13]

Porter Wagoner Boulevard, a road in his native West Plains, Missouri, is named in his honor.[14]

In 2013, the television show Drunk History presented a brief summary of Wagoner's relationship with Parton.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Dan Cooper at AllMusic noted, "As for his music, after signing with RCA in 1952, he produced a wealth of superb hard country, and just as much of the most wretchedly oversentimentalized tripe you'll ever want to hear. The latter, of course, is half the reason he's loved".[1]

Discography

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote".

Studio albums

<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
  • Satisfied Mind (1957)
  • A Slice of Life: Songs Happy 'n' Sad (1962)
  • Porter Wagoner and Skeeter Davis Sing Duets (with Skeeter Davis)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1962)
  • Y'all Come (1963)
  • The Bluegrass Story (1964)
  • The Thin Man from West Plains (1965)
  • The Grand Ole Gospel (with the Blackwood Brothers Quartet)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1966)
  • Confessions of a Broken Man (1966)
  • Soul of a Convict and More Great Prison Songs (1967)
  • The Cold Hard Facts of Life (1967)
  • More Grand Ole Gospel (with the Blackwood Brothers Quartet)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1967)
  • Just Between You and Me (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1968)
  • The Bottom of the Bottle (1968)
  • Just the Two of Us (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1968)
  • In Gospel Country (with the Blackwood Brothers Quartet)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1968)
  • The Carroll County Accident (1969)
  • Always, Always (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1969)
  • Me and My Boys (1969)
  • You Got-ta Have a License (1970)
  • Porter Wayne and Dolly Rebecca (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1970)
  • Once More (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1970)
  • Skid Row Joe Down in the Alley (1970)
  • Two of a Kind (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1971)
  • Simple as I Am (1971)
  • Porter Wagoner Sings His Own (1971)
  • The Right Combination • Burning the Midnight Oil (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1972)
  • What Ain't to Be, Just Might Happen (1972)
  • Ballads of Love (1972)
  • Together Always (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1972)
  • Experience (1972)
  • We Found It (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1973)
  • Love and Music (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1973)
  • I'll Keep on Lovin' You (1973)
  • The Farmer (1973)
  • Tore Down (1974)
  • Porter 'n' Dolly (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1974)
  • Highway Headin' South (1974)
  • Sing Some Love Songs, Porter Wagoner (1975)
  • Say Forever You'll Be Mine (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1975)
  • Porter (1977)
  • Today (1979)
  • When I Sing for Him (1979)
  • Porter & Dolly (with Dolly Parton)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (1980)
  • Porter Wagoner's Greatest (1981)
  • Natural Wonder (1982)
  • Viva (1983)
  • Porter Wagoner (1986)
  • The Best I've Ever Been (2000)
  • Unplugged (2002)
  • 22 Grand Ole Gospel 2004 (2003)
  • Something to Brag About (with Pam Gadd)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (2004)
  • 18 Grand Ole Gospel 2005 (2005)
  • Gospel 2006 (2006)
  • The Versatile Porter Wagoner (2006)
  • Wagonmaster (2007)
  • Best of Grand Ole Gospel 2008 (2007)

Awards

Year Award Awards Notes
1966 Best Sacred Recording (Musical) Grammy Awards with The Blackwood Brothers
1967 Best Gospel Performance Grammy Awards with The Blackwood Brothers
1968 Vocal Duet of the Year Music City News Awards with Dolly Parton
Vocal Group of the Year CMA Awards with Dolly Parton
1969 Best Gospel Performance Grammy Awards with The Blackwood Brothers
Vocal Duet of the Year Music City News Awards with Dolly Parton
1970 Vocal Duo of the Year CMA Awards with Dolly Parton
Vocal Duet of the Year Music City News Awards with Dolly Parton
1971 Vocal Duo of the Year CMA Awards with Dolly Parton
1998 Living Legend TNN/Music City News Country Awards
2002 Inductee Country Music Hall of Fame
2007 WagonMaster Award Americana Music Association

References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ [1] Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  9. ↑ Eng, Steve. (1998). "Porter Wagoner". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 565–6.
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

External links

Template:Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton Template:Grand Ole Opry members Template:2000s Country Music Hall of Fame Template:CMA Group of the Year Template:CMA Duo of the Year Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=Porter_Wagoner&oldid=5442080"