Customer Reviews

The Rubber Room

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The fact that Porter Wagoner brought non-other than James Brown in to perform at The Grand Ol' Opry should give you some indication that he is much more than a pompador & purple Nudie suit.

Johnny Cash once remarked, "No one tells a story like Porter Wagoner" & the likes of "Fairchild" & "Jim Johnson" are all the proof you need. Murder, lust, madness,& sheer unmitigated heartbreak abound here. In short, this as macabre as Country Music gets. With perhaps, just the right amount of unintentional kitch thrown in to sweeten the deal. Regardless of that, the sincerity of of "Moments Of Meditation" & "Lonely Comin' Down" cannot be denied.

Though perhaps somewhat overshadowed by a certain tall haired protege, many of the songs here reveal not only a consummate craftsmen, but also someone willing to push the boundries of his genre. I'd be hard pressed to find another song quite like "Rubber Room" filed under "Country". At times, it borders on 60's Psyche. Fortunately, Wagoner's forays into Disco have not been included.

Songs like, "Fairchild" & "The First Mrs. Jones" have more in common with the Pulp Noir novels of Jim Thompson than anything you might have seen on Hee Haw. Despite sometimes lush arrangements, these songs capture the true bleakness lying behind Country's shopworn cliches. Many of the songs here bring a chill as they tickle the funnybone.

While Hank Williams Sr.'s Luke The Drifer recordings are an obvious influence, I'd say it all lies somewhere inbetween a Countryfied Serge Gainsbourg & Leon Payne's "Psycho".

Maudlin, macabre & heartfelt, this is one of the finest Wagoner collections on offer. Not to mention some of the darkest stuff to ever come out of Nashville. It's rapdily becoming one of my favorite Country albums of all time. Much more than the man who introducted us to Dolly Parton, here's proof that Wagoner is truely one of the most underrated figures in Country Music.

First off, this is not a greatest hits package, so if you are interested in that, you might want to look at some of the RCA packages that are excellent. But . . .
Storytelling has long been a basic facet of Southern life and country music strongly reflects the storytelling infleunce. There was a time when those stories weren't all happy, fluffy pieces like you will hear today. Go far enough back in country music history and murder songs abound, some repentant, others defiant. "Rubber Room" compiles a ranging collection of story songs recorded by Porter Wagoner. The truth is that these songs aren't always pleasant and they aren't feel good. But they plunge into the depths of the human condition with deep insight. What you get is a portrait of an extremely strong artist performing some powerfully written songs. Summarizing them is difficult so I would say they best thing you could do is experience this CD. Everything from miscegenation to adultery to the paralyzing impact of alcohol is explored here. And it helps to underscore what all of us Southerners have known, Porter Wagoner is a fine singer and interpeter of song.

If the Power of Porter compels you, this is a must-have for your collection. Be warned that it's not your mama's Grand Ole Opry-fied version of Porter Wagoner, however - you'll be going from "Sorrow on The Rocks" to 'solitary confinement' here, but you'll love the mad, lyrical ride through Porter's world of pain, encapsulated in his murky morality tales dealing in drunkenness, jealousy, murder, complete mental erosion, just to name a few.

Desperation, poverty, adultery, insanity, murder... they're all present and accounted for. Vintage country music is great stuff! An excellent collection from one of country music's unsung greats. Hipsters will love this...

Great stuff...the kind you will never hear on the radio...unless you listened to Laura Cantrell's show on WFMU.

Here is a very good longplay cd with Porter singing bizarre lyrics in these songs.Rare music and very good singing by Porter,buy it!

This is the rubber room and I love it ! Porter Wagoner is one of my all time favorites because he's one of those truly rural singers that you just don't hear anymore. His singing and narration have a sincere , genuine quality that cannot be imitated. I was already familiar with "The Caroll County Accident" , "The Cold Hard facts Of Life" , "Jim Johnson" and "My Many Hurried Southern Trips" all of which are excellent.The other 25 songs on this disc are really good as well.I enjoyed "George Leroy Chickashea" and "Indian Creek" which would both be considered politically incorrect by today's standards.This disc includes a booklet that features the album covers from which the songs on this compilation were selected.This is a great package of Porter Wagoner's more adult themed material.I also highly recommend the new album,Wagonmaster.

I purchased this collection under a different title here on Amazon as a set of mp3 downloads rather than as a CD titled "The Rubber Room", but the track listing is identical and the title track of this collection was one of the lures that I'd been wanting in my music collection for the longest time. Five stars, no doubt about it!

Originally I'd been searching for a hard to find Porter Wagoner classic, "The First Mrs. Jones". It had been the lead track from the album "The Cold Hard Facts Of Life". I heard the song once, in the early 80s, when a friend exuberantly played it for me as one of his gleeful thrift store finds, and the song made sufficient impact that 25 years later I was hoping to find it on Amazon. What a wicked and delightful sense of humor Porter Wagoner had! Country music doesn't get any better than this.

But don't neglect or discount the rest of this collection, this is great country music. Give a listen to "Woman Hungry", or the more well-known "Cold Hard Facts Of Life". And the title track, "The Rubber Room"!

Porter's progeny Dolly Parton may have gone on to become a crossover success, but for those of us who relish country music with funky hair, embroidered suits, and lyrics that roam the full spectrum of the human experience, you'd be hard pressed to find a more enjoyable collection of songs.

This is definately on the dark side, great music and moving stories, but really really sad.

Man, I love me some Porter Wagoner. I don't know why they didn't use the cover of the original Rubber Room LP though. I suppose he looks a little more dignified on this cover. On the original he looks positively psycho.

I used to stare at that album cover for hours on end.