Category:
Roots

Try if you like:
Hank Snow, Johnny Cash, Lefty Frizzel

While the conceit of taking a country legend, stripping his sound down and out from under too many years of cheese and glitter is an old one, it never fails to impress. Guys like Johnny Cash, Kristofferson, Jessie Colter and Willie Nelson were always better than the shit they sometimes—admittedly on purpose-cranked out. But each one has really responded to the offer by younger fans to play it like they feel it, with no pressure from Branson or Nashville commercial considerations. Marty Stuart is the prime mover behind getting the 79 year old Porter Wagoner, long a fixture on the Grand Ole Opry to the point to being a clichéd cadaverous male Minnie Pearl, to pick up a guitar, tell some stories, and wake up the echoes. And Damn it if he didn’t; Wagonmaster is as good a country rejuvenation as Cash’s first one with Rick Rubin.

 

“Committed to Parkview,” “The Agony of Waiting,” “Brother Harold Dee” and “Albert Erving” are instant classics, holy messages from a time when honky tonk stood for the sad and raw tales of real human experience, not as a money-making cartoon for rednecks re-recording Chevy commercials or RNC slogans for the Wal-Mart set. Put THIS boot up your ass, Toby.

Porter Wagoner immediately jumps back into legend status and erases decades of playin’ rhinestoned stooge to the AARP set. Wagonmaster is a masterful release.