It was in the 1960s, as a teenager attending the Anderson County Fair in South Carolina, that I saw Porter Wagoner introduce his new girl singer, Dolly Parton. Let’s just say for a Southern kid, it was a day I will never forget. I grew up around Wagoner, who actually rode in the Christmas parade in my tiny hometown of Honea Path. He was always a flashy character, wearing Nudie and Manuel suits with his big blond pompadour. Today, Porter Wagoner would be 87 years old. Known as Mr. Grand Ole Opry, Wagoner charted 81 singles from 1954–1983 and was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Wagoner was born in West Plains, Missouri. His first band, The Blue Ridge Boys, performed on radio station KWPM-AM from a butcher shop in his native West Plains, Missouri where Wagoner cut meat. In 1951, he was hired by Si Siman as a performer on KWTO-AM in Springfield, Missouri. This led to a contract with RCA Victor. 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, followed by a few hits of his own on RCA. Starting in 1955, he was a featured performer on ABC-TVs Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri. He often appeared on the show as part of the Porter Wagoner Trio with Don Warden and Speedy Haworth. Warden, on steel guitar, became Wagoners long-time business manager. In 1957, Wagoner and Warden moved to Nashville, Tennessee, joining the Grand Ole Opry. Like many of his contemporaries in country music, Wagoner toured and performed outdoors for fans at American Legion houses in rural towns. Fans sat on wooden benches facing what was often a makeshift stage, just as I did when I first saw Dolly Parton. Wagoner would mingle with the audience during performance breaks and usually remembered the names of the towns he visited. Wagoners 81 charted records include A Satisfied Mind (No. 1, 1955), “Misery Loves Company” (No. 1, 1962), “Ive Enjoyed as Much of This as I Can Stand” (No. 7, 1962–1963), “Sorrow on the Rocks” (No. 5, 1964), “Green, Green Grass of Home” (No. 4, 1965), “Skid Row Joe” (No. 3, 1965–1966), “The Cold Hard Facts of Life” (No. 2, 1967) and “The Carroll County Accident” (No. 2, 1968–1969). Among his hit duets with Dolly Parton were a cover of Tom Paxtons The Last Thing on My Mind (1967), Well Get Ahead Someday (1968), Just Someone I Used to Know (1969), Better Move it on Home (1971), The Right Combination (1972), Please Dont Stop Loving Me (No. 1, 1974) and Making Plans (No. 2, 1980). His syndicated television program, The Porter Wagoner Show, aired from 1960 to 1981. There were 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 of over three million. Reruns of the program air on the rural cable network RFD-TV and its sister channel in the UK Rural TV. Though Partons departure from Wagoner caused some animosity on both sides, the two reconciled in the late 1980s and appeared together a number of times in the following years; Parton inducted Wagoner into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002. Until his death, Wagoner appeared regularly on the Grand Ole Opry and toured actively. He died from lung cancer in Nashville on October 28, 2007 at age 80. Dolly Parton performed a concert at her Tennessee theme park, Dollywood, in his memory after his death. Here, Wagoner and Parton sing “Holding On to Nothin’.”
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 04:06:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015