The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
The Porter Wagoner Show #104 with special guests Jim, Chuck, and Tompall Glaser, The Glaser Brothers.
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
Promo for Porter Wagoner Show #104 with special guests The Glaser Brothers. Spot opens with the Glasers singing a verse of "The Lover's Farewell." The camera pulls out to reveal Porter, who says "That's The Glaser Brothers, they're our special guests this week on the Porter Wagoner Show. You and the family join us here on this channel, won't you?"
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
Introduction to Porter Wagoner show #104. Program opens with Wagoner and Wagonmasters Speck Rhodes, Don Warden, and George McCormick as well as Norma Jean onscreen singing "Howdy Neighbor Howdy." Over title card decorated with drawing of Wagoner, announcer Hairl Hensley introduces Wagoner and The Wagonmasters, show regulars Speck Rhodes and Norma Jean, and "your favorite songs and stars of the Grand Ole Opry!" Wearing garish rhinestone-studded, western-themed Nudie suit, Wagoner welcomes audience, then accompanied by The Wagonmasters, plays guitar and sings "Y'all Come" from his 1963 album of the same name. Porter asks the audience to help him out with the call-and-response chorus. CU Mack's fiddle solo and Buck's rock 'n roll banjo.
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
Porter introduces "his favorite trio" (outside of The Wagonmasters, naturally), Tompall, Chuck, and Jim, The Glaser Brothers. Like Waylon Jennings' appearance a few episodes back, the clean-cut Tompall Glaser seen here is still a ways off from the "outlaw" image he would cultivate a few years down the road. Backed by The Wagonmasters, the brothers play guitar and sing a number Tom co-wrote with Harlan Howard, "The Streets Of Baltimore."
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
Mack Magaha fiddles us out of the commercial break on an instrumental version of "Shady Grove," joined soon thereafter on a typically rip-snortin' banjo solo by Buck Trent. Porter comes back at the end of the number and announces it, then brings Mack back just as he's walking off. Porter pulls something out of Mack's back pocket that turns out to be a cleaning tag, apparently a prank by the rest of the boys. "These boys in the band, they always hangin' somethin' on Mack," Porter says. "The other day he come on the show and I looked and he had a tag tied on his back, said 'for sale'."
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
Porter introduces Pretty Miss Norma Jean, who plays guitar and sings a cover of Kitty Wells' "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," backed by The Wagonmasters. The band comes in early, stepping on Norma's own introduction to her song. MCU Mack Magaha fiddling.
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
Backed by The Wagonmasters, Porter plays guitar and sings "Bride's Bouquet" from his 1965 LP "The Thin Man From West Plains."
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
Porter introduces gap-toothed comedian Speck Rhodes who enters wearing his trademark checkered suit with bow tie and bowler hat. Speck tells a corny joke about why he got a black eye, then sings "I Wish I Was In Arkansas A-Settin' On A Rail," or "Stop That Ticklin' Me," backed by The Wagonmasters. Rhodes "dances" (twists, gyrates, whatever you'd want to call it) to Buck's banjo playing. At the end, Speck plugs the show's souvenir booklet #4, "The Porter Wagoner Show Hits The Road!", containing songs and stories and pictures. It can be yours for only fifty cents by mail. And make sure to print your return address clearly cuz Speck can't see so good.
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
Porter introduces the week's sacred song as a number he had out as a single, "one of the old time shout numbers" "When I Reach That City." Though the record featured The Blackwood Brothers, on this rendition Porter is joined only by The Wagonmasters.
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
Porter reintroduces his Opry buddies The Glaser Brothers. Backed by The Wagonmasters, the brothers play guitar and harmonize on their new MGM recording, "The Last Thing On My Mind." Afterwards, Porter makes a joke a joke about Jim singing the low part, and Jim replies "Yes, I sure do, Porter" in a cartoon falsetto.
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
Porter says that although a different number was rehearsed, someone in the studio requested "Let Me Down Easy," so the brothers oblige with a lovely rendition, backed as before by The Wagonmasters. Porter comes back and quotes Speck, saying that "If they sung any closer harmony, they'd be on the other side of it."
The Porter Wagoner Show No. 104
Porter wraps up the show. As the Wagonmasters play instrumental show outro and announcer signs off, Wagoner shakes hands with Norma Jean and The Glasers, then waves goodbye as Magaha dances and fiddles us off the air. End title super reads: "A Show Biz Production," and for an instant we catch a glimpse of Porter putting Speck's hat on Mack while he fiddles, making him look like the leprechaun from the Lucky Charms commercials.