Porter Wagoner - The Definitive Collection (2016)

No one, but no one, painted a picture in song of despair and desolation like the Thin Man from the West Plains, Porter Wagoner. Forget the Nudie suit and the pompadour; Waylon Jennings once said that Wagoner couldn’t go pop with a mouthful of firecrackers, and these 40 songs prove it. Sure, the hits—27 of ‘em in all and every Top Ten solo smash—are here, like “A Satisfied Mind,” “Misery Loves Company,” “Skid Row Joe,” “The Cold Hard Facts of Life,” and “The Carroll County Incident,” but what elevates this collection above a mere best-of are the tracks lifted from Wagoner’s starkly compelling concept albums (complete with their amazing album art, some of which we’ve included here) like Confessions of a Broken Man, Soul of a Convict and Other Great Prison Songs, and The Bottom of the Bottle. Grammy-winning writer Colin Escott contributes notes to the package, which is newly remastered by Vic Anesini at Battery Studios in New York. Country music never got harder than this…this ain’t cry-in-your-beer country, it’s more like punch-in-the-gut poetry. Essential!

Tracklist:

CD1:

01. Howdy Neighbor, Howdy
02. Trademark
03. Company's Comin'
04. A Satisfied Mind
05. Eat, Drink and Be Merry (Tomorrow You'll Cry)
06. What Would You Do (If Jesus Came to Your House)
07. Uncle Pen
08. Tryin' to Forget the Blues
09. A Good Time Was Had by All
10. MIdnight
11. I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name
12. Legend of the Big Steeple
13. Your Old Love Letters
14. Everything She Touches Gets the Blues
15. Misery Loves Company
16. Cold Dark Waters
17. I've Enjoyed as Much of This as I Can Stand
18. Sorrow on the Rocks
19. The Life of the Party
20. I'll Go Down Swinging

CD2:

01. Y'all Come
02. Green, Green Grass of Home
03. Skid Row Joe
04. Confessions of a Broken Man
05. I Just Came to Smell the Flowers
06. Soul of a Convict
07. The Cold Hard Facts of Life
08. The First Mrs. Jones
09. Julie
10. Woman Hungry
11. Turn the Jukebox Up Louder
12. Pastor's Absent on Vacation
13. The Carroll County Accident
14. Big Wind
15. When You're Hot You're Hot
16. You Got-Ta Have a License
17. The Last One to Touch Me
18. The Rubber Room
19. What Ain't to Be, Just Might Happen
20. Highway Headin' South