Dan O'Day

The Advocate

It’s noon on Wednesday, and Pop Wagner rolls the cricks from his neck, first the left side, then the right. Guitar slung over his shoulder, half-gallon cowboy hat propped back on his head, he enters the Vista Dining Center like it’s a saloon in an old spaghetti western, rather than a community college cafeteria.

Combining equal parts cowboy shtick and genuine country music talent, Wagner charmed the crowd by acting completely oblivious to the fact that most of the suburban-bred crowd had never seen anything like this, and had no idea how to react to the constant barrage of silly cowpoke puns, Woodie Guthrie references and lasso tricks.

The first song he played, “Tennessee Stud,” he introduced as his “favorite cowboy love song,” because “not only is the cowboy in love in this song, but so is his horse!”

Then he cracked, “But don’t worry, this is a show approved for a family audience. There ain’t nothing ‘bout no beastiality in this song.”

Slowly the crowd’s culture shock began to wane, and one member of the audience yelled for a Johnny Cash song.

“I never do requests unless I’m asked.”

He played a twanged out version of “Folsom Prison Blues” that really seemed to get the crowd into this show.

After playing some fiddle and harmonica, Wagner pulled out the big guns and started doing lasso tricks with his lariat.

The lasso part of the show was a little disappointing, being that the man has his own instructional video called “The Art of the Lariat”. It consisted mainly of different variations on the same couple of tricks.

With his penchant for laughing enough at his own jokes that he still seemed to pull them off even when they got just a little too corny, Pop Wagner proved what the flyers were saying all week.

“You don’t have to like country to like Pop Wagner!”