WAGONMASTER - PORTER WAGONER
Marty Stuart plays Rick Rubin to Porter Wagoner’s Johnny Cash on this 17-track set, which brings the legend back to secular country for the first time in seven years, after a series of gospel releases. Like Rubin, Stuart is smart in not overproducing the disc, instead letting the 79-year-old Wagoner rule the proceedings with the still-expressive strength of his voice and his gift for nuanced storytelling. The honky-tonk swing of “Be a Little Quieter” gives way to the weepy waltz of “Who Knows Right From Wrong.” Wagoner sounds as potent on such upbeat fare as “Eleven Cent Cotton,” “Hotwired” and a new rendition of “My Many Hurried Southern Trips” (the original a collaboration with protege Dolly Parton) as he does on mournful paeans like “The Agony of Waiting” and “Brother Harold Dee.” Billboard
