porter and dolly

I've met Cowboy Jack Clement a couple of times (Jamie Hartford introduced us), and it seems like everytime I dip into my record collection for something truly nourishing, something with which he had something to do comes up, like a lot of the best post-Elvis stuff on Sun, or a ton of Charlie Pride's hits. Or one of John Hartford's best later albums, Gum Tree Canoe.

Despite that his trumpet arrangement for "Ring of Fire" is probably his most referred-to moment of greatness, the two Cowboy achievements that most thrill me are Charlie Pride's "All I Have To Offer You Is Me" and this slice of Dolly and Porter at the top of their mutual game. This is possibly my favorite boy/girl country duet ever, and Cowboy wrote it. It's an amazing song and the performance is worthy . Porter was one of the greats, but time -- and the mythology of Dolly's superstardom, which reduced his role to that of talent scout -- has done him a disservice. Porter had the thing. Cowboy still does. One of these days I will regale you with the tale of his off the cuff speech about Frank Yankovic at the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame award show.

He is the coolest man I have ever met, and I know some cool guys. Bask in his genius.