| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Shoot Creek ~ Charlie Poole |  | | 2. Baltimore Fire ~ Charlie Poole | | | 3. Leaving Home ~ Charlie Poole | | | 4. There'll Come A Time ~ Charlie Poole | | | 5. White House Blues ~ Charlie Poole | | | 6. Highwayman ~ Charlie Poole | | | 7. Hungry Hash House ~ Charlie Poole | | | 8. Letter That Never Came, The ~ Charlie Poole | | | 9. Take A Drink On Me ~ Charlie Poole | | | 10. Husband And Wife Were Angry One Night ~ Charlie Poole | | | 11. Ramblin' Blues ~ Charlie Poole | | | 12. Took My Gal A-Walkin' ~ Charlie Poole | | | 13. Old And Only In The Way ~ Charlie Poole | | | 14. Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues ~ Charlie Poole | | | 15. Bill Mason ~ Charlie Poole | | | 16. Kiss Waltz, A - (with The North Carolina Ramblers) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 17. Flop Eared Mule - (with The Highlanders) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 18. Trip To New York Pt. 1, A - (with Allegheny Highlanders) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 19. Sweet Sixteen ~ Charlie Poole | | | 20. Write A Letter To My Mother ~ Charlie Poole | | | 21. If The River Was Whiskey ~ Charlie Poole | | | 22. Mother's Last Farewell Kiss ~ Charlie Poole | | | 23. Milwaukee Blues ~ Charlie Poole | | | 24. Where The Whipporwill Is Whispering Good Night ~ Charlie Poole | | Disc 2
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Girl I Left In Sunny Tennessee, The ~ Charlie Poole | | | 2. Sunny Tennessee - (with The Floyd County Ramblers) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 3. Bulldog Down In Sunny Tennessee - (with Dock Walsh) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 4. Moving Day - (with Arthur Collins) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 5. It's Moving Day ~ Charlie Poole | | | 6. Home Sweet Home - (with Frank Jenkins) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 7. I'm The Man That Rode The Mule Around The World ~ Charlie Poole | | | 8. Man That Rode The Mule Around The World - (with Uncle Dave Macon) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 9. Lynchburg Town - (with The Highlanders) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 10. Going Down To Lynchburg Town - (with Blue Ridge Highballers) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 11. Some One - (with Branch & Coleman) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 12. Monkey On A String - (with Cal Stewart) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 13. Monkey On A String ~ Charlie Poole | | | 14. Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister ~ Charlie Poole | | | 15. May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister - (with Red Fox Chasers) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 16. Married Life Blues - (with Byron Parker & His Mountaineers) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 17. Infanta March, The - (with Fred Van Eps) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 18. Sunset March ~ Charlie Poole | | | 19. I'll Roll In My Sweetheart's Arms - (with Carter & Young) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 20. Goodbye Eliza Jane - (with The Peerless Quartet) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 21. Goodbye Sweet Liza Jane ~ Charlie Poole | | | 22. Goodbye Booze - (with Gid Tanner) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 23. Goodbye Booze ~ Charlie Poole | | | 24. You Ain't Talking To Me - (with Eddie Morton) ~ Charlie Poole | | | 25. You Ain't Talking To Me ~ Charlie Poole | |
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Charlie Poole (vocals, banjo); Charlie Poole; John Willie Boone, Leonard Stokes, Ben Evans, Fate Norris, A.P. Thompson, Leonard Stokes, Preston Young, J.W. (Will) Boone, A.P. Thompson, Fate Norris, Ben Evans (vocals, guitar); Clay Everhart, Dock Walsh, John Patterson, Earnest Branch, Doc Walsh, Leon Cofer, Ernest Branch, John Fletcher "Red" Patterson, Leon Cofer (vocals, banjo); Guy Brooks, Paul Cofer, Bernice Coleman, Bernice Coleman, Guy Brooks, Paul Cofer (vocals, fiddle); Walter Boone (vocals, harmonica); Bob Crawford (vocals); Thomas Franklin Cooper, Clyde Robbins, Larry Nolen, Alfred Steagall, Lonnie Griffith, Norman Woodlief, Norman Woodlieff, Clyde Robbins, Lee Nolen, Thomas Franklin Cooper, Alfred Steagel (guitar); Sam Moore, Sam Moore (banjo, harmonica); Harold Hall, Dacosta Woltz, Arthur Wells, Frank Jenkins, DeWitt Jenkins, R.D. Hundley, Sam McNeil, Marshall Small, Francis Jenkins, Snuffy Jenkins, Da Costa Woltz, Sam McNeil, R.D. Hundley, Marshall Small, Harold Hall (banjo); Dick Nolen (tenor banjo); Robert Dewey Cooper, Odell Smith, Banks McNeil, Charley La Prade, Posey Rorer, Henry Hall , Percy Setliff, Henry Hall , Lonnie Austin, Lonnie Austin, Posey Rorer, Odell Smith, Banks McNeil, Percy Setliff, Robert Dewey Cooper (fiddle); Walter Boone (harmonica); Henry Burr, Frank C. Stanley, Byron Harlan (unknown instrument); Sid Harkreader, Mack Woolbright (vocals, guitar); Uncle Dave Macon, Buster Carter, Charlie Parker (vocals, banjo); Gid Tanner, Benny Jarrell (vocals, fiddle); Eddie Morton, Kelly Harrell, Arthur Collins, Billy Murray, Cal Stewart (vocals); Henry Whitter, Roy Harvey, Clarence Hall (guitar); Fisher Hendley, Fred Van Eps, Paul Miles (banjo); Homer "Pappy" Sherrill (fiddle); Lucy Terry, Carl Freed (piano). | | Liner Note Authors: Henry Sapoznik; Kinney Rorrer. | | Recording information: Atlanta, GA (08/??/1902-10/10/1940); Camden, NJ (08/??/1902-10/10/1940); Charlotte, NC (08/??/1902-10/10/1940); Chicago, IL (08/??/1902-10/10/1940); Dallas, TX (08/??/1902-10/10/1940); Memphis, TN (08/??/1902-10/10/1940); New York, NY (08/??/1902-10/10/1940); Richmond, IN (08/??/1902-10/10/1940). | | Ensembles: Byron Parker & His Mountaineers; Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band; Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters; The Georgia Crackers; Kelly Harrell & The Virginia String Band; North Carolina Cooper Boys; Floyd County Ramblers; Highlanders; The Blue Ridge Highballers; Branch & Coleman; Red Fox Chasers; Carter & Young; Peerless Quartet; Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers; Allegheny Highlanders. | | Photographers: Harold Francis; Richard Martin; Allan Sutton; Betsy Moore Loar; Kinney Rorrer; Christopher [1] C. King; Meagan Hennessey; Bob Carlin. | | Unknown Contributor Role: Henry Burr. | | First, a word about what You Ain't Talkin' to Me is not: it is not a box set of Charlie Poole's complete recorded work. He recorded some 110 songs for the Columbia, Paramount, and Brunswick labels between 1925 and 1931, and 43 of those tracks are collected here, with the balance of this three-disc set given over to sides by Poole's stylistic predecessors and contemporaries. Creating a feel for Poole's life and milieu is the goal here, and presenting musical evidence to place him as the clear grandfather of both bluegrass and modern country is the not-so-hidden agenda. Poole was never an overwhelming banjo player, but his three-finger picking style certainly carries trace elements of what would become bluegrass some 20 years later (when a banjo whiz named Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe's band in 1946). Poole wasn't a particularly strong singer, either, but his rambling, gambling persona and flamboyant stage antics (and frequent multi-week alcoholic benders) provide convincing evidence that Poole was outlaw country five decades before the term was even born. Poole's real genius -- since he didn't write songs -- was his ability to take folk tunes, pop songs, fiddle reels, blues fragments, and church hymns and reconfigure them into autobiographical statements by dropping or importing a verse, adding a stray line here and there, changing the title, and eventually delivering fresh, stripped-down versions of familiar songs that now seemed entirely Poole's. What You Ain't Talkin' to Me does best is document how this process worked, and after a first disc of acknowledged Poole classics ("Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues," "White House Blues," "If the River Was Whiskey," "Ramblin' Blues"), the second and third discs present Poole songs alongside their antecedents in what is essentially a workshop in how pop folk is created in a mechanized age. On disc three, for example, you hear Arthur Collins' 1902 version of "Oh! Didn't He Ramble" as a heavily stylized and orchestrated bit of vaudeville. In Poole's hands, stripped down and shaped into a sinewy, sexy, and bluesy ensemble piece for banjo, guitar, and fiddle, it became the self-referential "He Rambled" in 1929. Similarly, Eddie Morton's civil and orchestrated "You Ain't Talking to Me" from 1909 becomes an ominous barroom boast in Poole's version, released as "You Ain't Talkin' to Me" in 1927. This ability to create new possibilities from old choices is what has driven American music from the very beginning, and Poole's talent for making it all seem like personal autobiography makes him very much a modernist, only a short leap away from an artist like Hank Williams. Doubters need only listen to Poole's "If I Lose, I Don't Care," which leads off the third disc, to clearly see the kind of DNA that went into modern country. As a glimpse of Poole's life and times, and a look behind the curtains at the adaptive nature of his creative process, this attractive set (it comes in a small cigar box with a R. Crumb illustration of Poole on the lid and includes a 60-page book insert) does a super job, but listeners should be aware that it is hardly comprehensive. Those interested in a more extensive sampling of Poole's work should check out JSP's four-disc box, Charlie Poole With the North Carolina Ramblers and the Highlanders, which features 96 of his 110 known recordings. ~ Steve Leggett |
Producer: Henry Sapoznik |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 05/17/2005 | | Original Release Date : 2005 | | Catalog ID : 92780 | | Label : Legacy Recordings | | Number of Discs : 3 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00827969278024 |
|
| | Professional Reviews | | Spin (p.102)
- "Funny and grim, with lots of proto-bluegrass licks and strange minstrel-era overhauls."Down Beat (p.76)
- 4.5 stars out of 5 - "Poole creates melody lines that run alongside, yet also counter to, Rorer's lyricism....Poole also had a distinctive singing voice that was smoky and mature beyond his years, but still had a perpetually youthful lilt." Living Blues (p.74)
- "[T]here is a lot of great stuff here....A lot of it will be unfamiliar even to hardcore rural music fans. The pop material is particularly welcome." |
|
| |
|
__USERID__
/prod/you-ain-t-talkin-to-me-charlie-poole/q/loc/109/63978761.html
|
CD
