Porter Wagoner dead at 80

(http://www.tennessean.com/)

Country Music Hall of Famer Porter Wagoner died Sunday, the same day country music dignitaries gathered at the Hall to induct its three newest members.

Mr. Wagoner, known as “The Thin Man From West Plains,” was 80. He had been admitted to an undisclosed Nashville-area hospital on Monday, Oct. 15 and it was announced he had lung cancer. Mr. Wagoner was released to hospice care on Friday, a Grand Ole Opry spokeswoman announced.

Mr. Wagoner’s contributions to country music are manifold and consequential. Marty Stuart, who produced this year’s much-heralded comeback album Wagonmaster, calls him “an American master and a cornerstone of our music.”

A hit-maker for more than a quarter-century, he was a Country Music Hall of Famer and a three-time Grammy winner whose best-loved singles included “A Satisfied Mind,” “Misery Loves Company” and “Green, Green Grass of Home.”

His syndicated television show allowed him to serve as an ambassador for the genre, and it proved invaluable in spreading the fame of Wagoner’s hand-picked “girl singer,” Dolly Parton, with whom he had hit duets including “Just Someone I Used To Know” and “Making Plans.”

In the studio, he was an innovator who tweaked traditional country arrangements and found fresh sounds in a genre that often tugs against change.