The Essential Porter Wagoner (CD - 1997)

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

This is part of RCA Nashville's Essentials series.

Personnel: Porter Wagoner (vocals).

Audio Remasterer: Benny Quinn.

Liner Note Author: Wade Jessen.

Recording information: ??/??/1954-12/07/1976.

Arranger: Porter Wagoner.

The Essential Porter Wagoner is the first thorough CD-era collection of his greatest hits, and while it misses a few items, all of the essential songs -- from "Company's Comin'" and "A Satisfied Mind" to "The Carroll County Accident" and "Uncle Pen" -- are here, making it a necessary addition to any country collection. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

True to its title, this is an excellent, comprehensive introduction to the work of this important country music figure. The disc opens with a humble take on "A Satisfied Mind" that shows Wagoner's roots in bluegrass and gospel. In short order, though, we're treated to the rollicking, honky-tonk side of Wagoner, as he revels in the joys of drink as heartache antidote on "Eat, Drink and be Merry (for Tomorrow You'll Cry)" and I'll Go Down Swinging."

Throughout much of his early career, Wagoner was heavily influenced by Hank Williams, but by the mid-to-late 1960s, he came fully into his own as a musical storyteller. The grim murder ballad "The Cold Hard Facts of Life," one of his finest moments, still sounds just as stirring and unsettling decades later, and the complex narrative of "Carroll County Incident" is in a class with Tom T. Hall. Even in the '70s, Wagoner was mixing downhome sentiments with baleful moodiness, as on the disc-closer "I Haven't Learned a Thing," which brings things full circle. minimize