Above all his ridiculous accoutrements—a six-inch high pompadour, over 50 rhinestone-studded Nudie suits and a strange amalgamation of country boy charm and Nashville bravado—Wagoner will be remembered for helping discover and promote a young Dolly Parton. They partnered to record and perform together for years. On Wagoner’s syndicated television show, "The Porter Wagoner Show", he would introduce her performances with a variety of gentle honorifics. They had warm and delicate on-screen chemistry.
Wagoner’s rise from the Missouri Ozarks to the grandest stage in Nashville illustrated his charisma and gift for folksy storytelling. Lyrically, Wagoner did not stray too far from standard country themes of connection to the land and the vagrancy of emotional loss and sorrow. Although he never attained the status of a country prophet, like Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard or Willie Nelson, the glint of his smile and the many glints of the rhinestones adorning his suits, Wagoner put his signature mark on country music for all-time.
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