I spent some time puzzling over whether to start this topic in Country or Folk & Americana. Charlie Poole is a seminal figure in Country, but his influence is sufficiently pervasive across multiple genres that I settled here.

When discussing the roots of America's indigenous musical forms, Charlie Poole is a name that should come up as readily as Bix Beiderbecke in jazz or Robert Johnson in blues. Strangely, for all the fact that he was nothing short of a superstar during his lifetime, he is not well-known today outside of relatively small circles. Virtually all of his recorded work has been available from the specialty label County, which might explain his relative obscurity. That will perhaps change with the release of the Columbia/Legacy box You Ain't Talkin' to Me: Charlie Poole and the Roots of Country Music.

I am a big fan of the old-timey and country blues styles that drew heavily on European folk music and 19th century minstrelsy. Charlie Poole was not the only performer working from such source material, but he was by most accounts one of the best and certainly the most thoroughly recorded, which makes these recordings a truly essential collection for anybody who truly wants to understand the roots of twentieth-century American popular music. The package is not comprehensive, but it is well-packaged (with artwork from renowned old-timey aficionado R. Crumb!) and should be more readily available than his music has been in the past. I only wish it had been released several years ago to capitalize on the success of the O Brother, Where Art Though.

If you are interested in reading more, there is a far better overview than Poole and the new set available from the Raleigh Durham News & Observer if you are interested.

Now Playing: "Leaving Home" Charlie Poole You Ain't Talkin' to Me: Charlie Poole and the Roots of Country Music

Thx. I'm wondering how close this music is to the sound and feel of the stuff from Harry Smith's Anthology. I admire that set, and have listened to it with interest, but I can't say there are many songs on it I have listened to more than a few times ("John the Revelator" and "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" being two of the exceptions). This sort of stuff is of great historical, musicological interest but usually when I out on music I want to hear stuff with better sound, production, etc. I had the same experience with a Carter family disc -- very interesting to listen to a couple of times, but I can't really imagine listening to it much more.

So I am afraid I would buy the Poole box set, listen to it a couple of times with great interest, and then not really return to it.

There's an excellent 3-CD set called "The Roots of Rock 'n' Roll 1946-1954" which I have listened to both for historical and musical reasons many times. Because it dates from a little later, I find it much easier and more musically pleasing to listen to. It's got a lot of the great early music that started rock and roll, like Louis Jordan, Arthur Crudup, Jackie Brenston, Joe Liggins and those types. As historical box sets go, it is the one I have found the most musically fun to hear again and again.

I've pushed it other places, but If you like that roots of rock n roll set, I'd recommend tracking down the OKeh records R&B set, as it sounds like it covers a lot of similar grounds and is one of the most fun to listen to sets in my collection. Slightly less great, but still very good is the Mercury blues 8 disk set.

The Harry Smith Anthology is a good comparison, Peewee. In fact, I would say the sound quality is the only significant issue with the Charlie Poole set. Columbia/Legacy has done about as good a job as they can do, but the original source material is pretty noisy and there's not much to be done to clean it up without compromising some of the nuances of the music.

Being a fan of early jazz, I tend to listen past an awful lot of surface noise and bad production. A few years ago, though, Columbia released a definitive collection of Benny Goodman's legendary Carnegie Hall concerts. The producers made the hard decision to do very little processing of the sound. I found the result unlistenable and turn to earlier editions when I want to hear those recordings, so I know what you mean about listening a couple of time for historical curiosity, then shelving it.

You might, however, keep an eye out for the individual County CDs or better still the JSP four-CD box. With the new set out, I wouldn't be surprised to see them start showing up used.

quote:

Originally posted by Peewee:
There's an excellent 3-CD set called "The Roots of Rock 'n' Roll 1946-1954" which I have listened to both for historical and musical reasons many times.

That's the Hip-O set, right? Man, I may not much care for the ongoing process of label consolidation, but it has made it a lot easier to navigate licensing rights for collections like that. I can think of a few tracks that might have made good additions, but can't see a one of the tracks that shouldn't be on there. An individual would have to have a mighty collection of music to NOT see it improved by owning that set.

Now Playing: "A Strangely Isolated Place" Ulrich Schnauss A Strangely Isolated Place