Porter Wagoner - The Bottom Of The Bottle `68 & Confessions Of A Broken Man `66 (2013) CD-Rip

Country music is all about drinking. Even songs about heartbreak or cheating spouses or the one that got away, somehow end up in a bar, or an alley or the bottom of a bottle. And no one did drinking songs better than Porter Wagoner. We've raved about this country legend on past lists, besides being an incredible musician with a clutch of amazing songs, he was also a total nut, who whipped up some of the weirdest country songs ever. He's the man responsible for "the Rubber Room" after all, a little ditty about mental illness, and as we mentioned in other reviews, almost every record, no matter how seemingly mainstream, always featured a track or two with seriously unseemly subject matter, murder, revenge, arson, suicide, prison and of course DRINKING.
So here we have two more classic PW albums, reissued by the fine folks at Omni, the first of which is an ode to country music's favorite past time, getting drunk, and of course, searching desperately for that next drink. Just a quick look through the song titles says it all: "Wino", "Daddy And The Wine", "The Bottom Of The Bottle", "In The Shadows Of The Wine", "The Bottle Let Me Down", "One Dime For Wine", "Bottle, Bottle", you get the idea, drinking, drinking and more drinking. Oh and a jaunty little ditty about a spurned woman who burns down her lover's favorite roadside tavern, which is also sort of about drinking…
But the sound is of course fantastic, lots of amazing guitar playing, wild slippery slide guitar, Wagoner's distinctive voice, the songs crazy catchy, and pretty dang weird in places. "Wino" begins with the sound of footsteps, then trash cans being dug through, the yowl of an alley cat, before unfurling as a Ken Nordine style bit of beatnik jazziness, which is soon augmented by some moody piano and swirly slide guitar. That's the weirdest track, but there are moments throughout, and of course, even when the music sounds like classic country, Wagoner will deliver some insane lyrics like it weren't nothing.
The second record here, Confessions Of A Broken Man, of course features some drinking songs, but for the most part focuses on the dark side of life, somber songs about folks down on their luck, the misunderstood, the forgotten, the dying and despondent, and the broken hearted. Gorgeous stuff, and a good companion to the more over the top drinking record that precedes it. As always, totally fantastic. And like every Omni release, gorgeously packaged, with tons of rare photos, and extensive liner notes in a big booklet. –Aquarius Records


Tracks:

The Bottom Of The Bottle (1968)
1. Wino
2. Daddy And The Wine
3. Swinging Doors
4. The Bottom Of The Bottle
5. In The Shadows Of The Wine
6. She Burnt The Little Roadside Tavern Down
7. The Bottle Let Me Down
8. One Dime For The Wine
9. Wine
10. Turn The Juke Box Up Louder
11. I Threw Away The Rose
12. Bottle, Bottle

Confessions Of A Broken Man (1966)
13. Men With Broken Hearts
14. I Just Came To Smell The Flowers
15. May You Never Be Alone
16. Skid Row Joe
17. Take Me Back And Try Me One More Time
18. How Far Can I Go?
19. I’m A Long Way From Home
20. Confessions Of A Broken Man
21. My Tears Are Overdue
22. I’ve Been Down That Road Before
23. Thy Burdens Are Greater Than Mine
24. My Last Two Tens

Bonus Tracks
25. Banks Of The Ohio
26. Sing Me Back Home
27. The Silent Kind
28. The Alley
29. Mama
30. When I Drink My Wine
31. I Judged A Man