Photo of the week: Porter Wagoner songbook


A young Porter Wagoner, standing in the in the spotlight wearing one of his many stylish “Nudie Suits,” gazes up at himself on the cover of this songbook from his first year on the Grand Ole Opry. Featuring “the songs he loves best,” including the excellent, “Let’s Squiggle,” this 1957 songbook, call no. FL-503,  is part of collection #30006: Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios, circa 1882-1983.
Porter Wagoner: Country Music Favorites
Hill and Range Songs, Inc. New York, N.Y. 1957.
41 p. of music and illustrations.
“Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (Tomorrow You’ll Cry)”
“Itchin’ for My Baby”
“Let’s Squiggle”
“I Should Be with You”
“I’m Day Dreamin’ Tonight”
“Tricks of the Trade”
“Love at First Sight”
“Blue Guitar”
“Uncle Pen”
“I Can’t Live with You (I Can’t Live without You)”
“Company’s Comin'”
“I’m Counting on You”
“Be Glad That You Ain’t Me”
“My Everything (You’re My Everything)”
“Trade Mark”


Another Dog In Outer Space Song

A few months ago Carrie wrote here about Goebbel Reeves’ “A Dog For Outer Space“, his ode to Laika, the dog who was launched into orbit aboard Sputnik 2 in 1957. It seems that Reeves’ hand-written lyrics don’t represent the only country song written about the canine cosmonaut, as we recently stumbled upon a song called “Sputnik Dog” in the Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs Picture Album, Hymn and Songbook (FL-417 in the SFC Song Folios Collection). Compared to Reeves’ tearjerker, the Flatt and Scruggs version of the Laika story (reproduced below) is a good deal more celebratory, though a little confused about the nature of  the dog’s journey and his prospects for a safe return: