Gettin’ Close with Pat Porter, By FAYE WHITBECK, Staff Writer

Local country musician Pat Porter says he feels lucky, and that “life is good, real good.”
Still, the veteran musician favors sad, lonesome country songs.
And he agrees with his favorite country artist, George Strait, when the star sings “Murder on Music Row,” a ballad about how the old authentic country music has become watered down and stripped of its character to make it more palatable to pop culture ...
“For the steel guitars no longer cry
And the fiddles barely play
But drums and rock 'n' roll guitars
Are mixed up in your face
Ol' Hank wouldn’t have a chance
On today's radio
Since they committed murder
Down on music row”

Borderland’s country boy
Pat Porter goes with Borderland country music like cowboy boots go with stirrups.
Porter has been singing and playing country music since the age of 17. That’s when he learned to play the accordion from his sister Evelyn’s husband.
Now, more than 50 years later, he’s just recorded his third CD, a collection of love songs he’s labeled “Songs for Gettin’ Close.”
Porter’s penchant for sad songs might have some roots in the singer’s heartbreaking childhood, in which he and his siblings would grow up without their mother. Minnie (Hansen) Porter would die at the age of 39 after giving birth to Porter’s brother Tom, in 1942. Father Jess would be faced, in the bleakest of financial times, with seven young pitiful faces searching for direction.
That direction would fall to sister Evelyn, who writes about the bittersweet Porter childhood in her book “Echoes of Home.” (See a Evelyn Porter Torblaa book feature on the Leisure page in this issue). Most of her tales center on the Ranier Mission Church, the Ranier school and the family’s home between the Falls and Ranier, at Second Creek.
Just 6 years old, Porter was too young to have much memory of his mother. He credits Evelyn and his mother’s lasting influence for the family bond that endured. Neighbors and friends as well as a very important figure “Mrs. Bzdok,” were essential in the Porter childhood.
“There was no welfare in those days,” said Porter. “That’s why you feel so special about certain people back then; they were all we had.” The compassion and structure found at the Ranier Mission Church would also mean a lot.
The Porters did have a piano, as well as a radio. And Pat Porter had an ear for music.
He played the double B-flat tuba for four years in the Falls High School band. In learning the accordion, he had developed a good knowledge of the keyboard so he taught himself to play the guitar. He’s been making music ever since.
During decades of local entertaining, Porter has performed many of his own songs as well as country favorites. But the Elvis fan also sings old rock and roll. And he does this every Sunday from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the place he once owned in partnership with Duane Rostie from 1972 -2001: The Border Bar.
Porter is a walking history of the old local bar and entertainment scene. He once owned the Flame Niteclub, the Border Bar and Holiday Isle with other partners.
But Porter had some of his earliest gigs as a teenager at the joints along Second Street — once the hub of rowdy partying in International Falls. Porter rattles off Second Street bar names of the 1950s, including Ed LaPointe’s Union Bar, Bill’s Bar, Hattie’s Bar, Claybundy’s, Busy Bee and Paul Bunyan; as well as Swede Charlie’s, the American Legion and the VFW on main street; and Butch Lessard’s Harmony Harbor in the old Ranier schoolhouse and the Graylight Bar in Ranier. Porter also played at The Nightingale in Kabetogama.
“These were packed joints and crazy times,” said Porter, who remembers his dad waiting outside on Second Street during his early jobs “because he was afraid I’d get killed.” Fights were normal and bottles would fly as three local taxicab services delivered people from all over, including many Canadians, and the Ojibwe who docked their canoes in Ranier.
In those days, Porter was listening to Wilf Carter, Eddie Arnold and Web Pierce on the radio.
Porter also had a salary position from 1953 to 1971 in the paper mill’s research department. But he’s a carpenter by trade, who has built a least a dozen of his own homes and worked on at least that
many more in the area.
Porter opened for Johnny Cash in the Fort Frances arena in younger days as part of his local band “The Rancheros,” when the legendary Cash and Porter Wagoner made a rare appearance there. Porter also performed with Buddy Knox, singer of the rockabilly hit “Party Doll.”
In 1968, while Porter owned The Flame Niteclub along with Duncan Rostie, the pair hired a singer named Justin Tubb. He happened to be the son of country music’s pioneer Ernest Tubb. The connection got Porter invited to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry where he performed with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Hee Haw’s Grandpa Jones and others.
He has lasting memories of the local musicians with whom he played — guys like Lyn Schwankl, Marvin Rask, Jack Zeipen, Don Frick, Pinky Dunbar and others.
Porter has seen Borderland night life change and decline dramatically over the years. He said the reason is two-fold. Mothers Against Drunk Drivers has had an important impact, as have changes in the local mill work shifts.
He and wife Barb, for whom he wrote a special love song, “Warmed By Your Love,” share six children, and enjoy several grandchildren.
Porter doesn’t have a goal to sell CDs. He has priced them at a reasonable $10 to serve “lots of friends who come every time” to his Sunday gigs at Border Bar, and others who have loved his music and supported him all these years. He produces his own CDs with the help of Bill Piekarski, mixing his own music in his own studio. He enlists a Duluth company on Canal Park and the help of daughters Jesse and Michelle Porter, for the CD’s graphics.
“I’m not in it for the money,” he added. “Music’s been good to me. I just want people to have fun.” And seeing his fans dancing is the most important part, according to Porter.”
Asked how long he plans to keep going with his music, Porter answered in his simple, country style: “Til they pat me on the belly with a shovel.”

Where to find Pat Porter’s CDs
Porter’s CDs may be purchased by stopping by the Border Bar during Sunday’s show or by calling him at 286-2040. His latest collection includes the songs “After the Lovin’,” “Am I Losing You?” “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You,” “Key Largo,” “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile,” “Statue of a Fool,” and others. His other CDs are entitled “Patty O Porter’s Country Hits,” and “Color Me Country.”
Porter performs every Sunday at The Border Bar from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.