You Ain't Talkin' To Me: Charlie Poole And The Roots Of Country Music CD

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 autobio

3cds-72 Tracks Chronicling The Origins/Roots Of Country Music

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.

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 FreSpin (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."