You Ain't Talkin' To Me: Charlie Poole and the Roots of Country Music

Poole, Charlie

album cover

The Collected Musings of a Pioneering Country Wanderer

A millworker and moonshiner, Charlie Poole spent most of his adult years wandering the South, raising hell. He and the band he called the North Carolina Ramblers would leave home for weeks at a time, playing for barn dances and on street corners. Through that piecemeal work, his spry sound spread, influencing countless musicians. It later became a core component of bluegrass.

Poole (1892–1931) played the banjo with three fingers. He'd damaged his right hand in a drunken wager (he claimed he could catch a baseball without a glove no matter how hard it was thrown, and lost), and taught himself to play in what was called a "clawhammer" style. His time was flawless: On this anthology of his 78-RPM recordings, Poole taps out a tempo so strong it carries his accomplices (usually a guitarist and a fiddler) right along with it. Poole's nimble group favored brisk tempos that kept people dancing. The band's repertoire included Civil War ballads, woebegone drifter laments ("May I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister" is one of the highlights on this three-disc set), early blues, mountain dances, and vaudeville numbers.

Poole's drinking binges and renegade exploits made him a legend in the Piedmont hills of Virginia and North Carolina, where he sold most of his records. He continued to record until 1930, and when Columbia records canceled his contract, Poole went back to millwork, suffering from depression. He died at age thirty-nine, after a thirteen-week bender. His records survived, however: Several famous bluegrass banjo stars, including Don Reno, learned their craft listening to Poole. But it wasn't until Harry Smith's 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music that those outside the Piedmont region appreciated the fiery sounds of country music's first renegade.

Genre: Country
Released: 2005, Columbia
Key Tracks: "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee," "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues," "May I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister."
Next Stop: Bill Monroe: The High Lonesome Sound of Bill Monroe
After That: Flatt and Scruggs: Foggy Mountain Jamboree
Book Pages: 604–605

Buy this Recording

Share this page: