Though his name may not ring as resoundingly down the halls of Nashville’s country hall of fame as those of his contemporaries George Jones and Ray Price, Porter Wagoner’s contribution to country music was just as significant. As the mastermind behind Dolly Parton’s meteoric rise to country stardom Wagoner was able to lodge some of his most memorable compositions in the higher reaches of the country charts. Yet despite his phenomenal success with Parton, Porter Wagoner’s somewhat more eccentric solo efforts often went comparatively underappreciated. Wagoner was able to sell albums by the truckload during his mid-sixties heydey, but he never attained superstardom, despite his reedy, yet sweet baritone and his skills as a first rate song-writer able to fill a three minute single with more twists and turns than a full season’s worth of tawdry soap operas. The outré murder ballads, chilling tales of insanity, and lovelorn pleas compiled on Out of Silence Came A Song prove that Wagoner was a skillful interpreter of his own material, not merely an ace songwriter. Songs like the unhinged “The Rubber Room” and the nihilistic “Cold Hard Facts of Life” are couched in baroque countrypolitan string arrangements and beautifully played lap steel guitar. Taken as a whole this collection represents an important chapter in the history of modern country music and the development of the Nashville songwriting industry.