Porter Wagoner

Genres:	Christian & Gospel • Country & Bluegrass
Descriptive "tags":	country • classic country • old country
Decades Active:	1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	Discography • IMDb • Official Homepage • Wikipedia

Biography

12 August 1927, West Plains, Howell County, Missouri, USA, d. 28 October 2007, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Wagoner grew up listening to country music on the radio, particularly the weekly Grand Ole Opry broadcasts. He learned to play the guitar at the age of 10 and, owing to his father’s illness, his education was curtailed in order that he could help with the farm work. He made his first singing performances at the age of 17, in the grocery store where he also worked. The store owner was so impressed that he sponsored an early-morning show on the local radio in West Plains. In 1951, his singing attracted the attention of the programme director of KWTO Springfield, who offered him work on that station. Soon afterwards, Red Foley, who was then organizing his new television series the Ozark Jubilee, heard him and promptly added him to the cast. Although he was relatively unknown, the television and radio exposure gained him a recording contract with RCA Records...

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