COUNTRY Music Hall of Famer Porter Wagoner, the Thin Man from West Plains, drops into Manhattan for the first time in nearly 20 years.
The original Rhinestone Cowboy – the country superstar was known for his flashy outfits – is bringing his upcoming album, “The Wagonmaster,” and an armory of country hits to Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette St.; [212] 967-7555) tonight for “An Evening of Stories and Songs.”
He turns 80 this summer, but the Grand Ole Opry mainstay from Missouri almost died last summer of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
“We tried to start the record in July, and Porter almost died. But we got it done, and I think this is one of the best records to come out of this town in years,” country star Marty Stuart, who produced the record, reportedly said at a listening party in Nashville in December. “Times change, but Porter hasn’t.”
On his fiddle-filled album, due in June, Porter mixes music (such as Johnny Cash’s “Committed to Parkview”) and memories (such as when he saw Hank Williams) with a band that includes Stuart (guitar, mandolin), Dwight Yoakam (bass), Billy Bob Thornton (drums), and on the electric banjo Buck Trent, who hasn’t recorded in 30 years.
Wagoner’s got some tales to tell. He had dozens of Top 10 songs (“Misery Loves Company” and “Green, Green Grass of Home” are just two) and his own hit TV show, which then unknown singer Dolly Parton joined in 1967. The two began recording together until their musical partnership ended – acrimoniously – in 1975. He’s also won lots of Country Music Association Awards, but never a Grammy. But that’s the past, and he’s lived to tell it all. We just need to listen.
TONIGHT: Playlist is now assured of an afterlife – life after Luna that is. Two members of the beloved indie band – frontman/guitarist Dean Wareham and bassist/keyboard Britta Phillips – have released their second album, “Back Numbers” under the cozy moniker of Dean & Britta.
The couple, who wrote the soundtrack to “The Squid and the Whale,” got married in the middle of recording the stylish ’60s-pop disc, which is filled with original material as well as slightly obscure covers such as Donovan’s “Teen Angel” and Lee Hazelwood’s “You Turned My Head Around.” Featured guest is Sonic Boom, which adds haunting electronic sounds. The two balance each other nicely – Phillips’ lilting vocals play off Wareham’s rawer croon – and perform at the Hiro Ballroom (Maritime Hotel; 88 Ninth Ave.; [212] 625-8553) tonight before taking the show on the road.
By the way, Wareham, who has appeared in a few films, found a new creative outlet – as a fashion model in a huge spread in Esquire.
WEDNESDAY: Remember when the Soundtrack of Our Lives was Oasis’ Noel Gallagher’s favorite band and darling of the South by Southwest set? That’s decades ago in indie-rocker attention-
deficit-disorder years and now the Swedish rock hippies are returing to smaller venues – which is great for fans of their ’60s-style psychedelic songs and for lead singer Ebbot Lundberg, who once told Playlist there was a lot going on under his trademark tunic.
TSOOL performs at the Mercury Lounge (217 E. Houston St.; [212] 260-4700) with Sam Champion and Gran Bel Fisher.
Patrick Park never watches TV, but his tune, “Life’s a Song,” sent “The O.C.” into teenage drama heaven: The hushed song closed the series, when in the final minutes, we see no-chemistry Taylor and Ryan are still together at the rockin’ wedding of geek boy Seth and Summer.
The singer/songwriter has an iTunes-only EP, which he’ll likely perform at the Living Room (154 Ludlow St.; [212] 533-7237) Wednesday.
BRANDED: Irving Plaza will be rechristened “The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza,” on April 11 with a concert by Brit singer Lily Allen.
Clear Channel spinoff Live Nation will renovate the club throughout the year in an effort to recapture the spirit of the ’60s-hippie crowd who flocked to see bands such as Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead and Frank Zappa at the original Fillmore East.
The original, which opened in 1968 at 105 Second Ave. in the East Village, was the the New York counterpart to San Francisco’s Fillmore, closed in 1971.
“The Fillmore means something to artists and to fans,” says original Fillmore East house manager Jerry Pompili. “It was more than just a building.” That’s good because the New York spot is now condos.
Adding to its old/new rebranding, Live Nation will reopen Philadephia’s TLA theater as the Fillmore Philadelphia in April.
marymhuhn@nypost.com