johnfoyle
06-21-2005, 01:59 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/320504p-274104c.html
New York Daily News
Cantrell, Sony salute pioneer Charlie Poole
By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, June 20th, 2005
WFMU's Laura Cantrell has a new CD coming out tomorrow, "Humming by the Flowered Vine," but meanwhile she's taken a moment to host a radio special on one of her musical ancestors: Charlie Poole, a banjo player who may be the most overlooked important musician in country history.
Poole drank himself to death, literally, 74 years ago. But the dozens of records he cut for Columbia and other labels from 1925 to 1930 laid down a critical template for, among other things, the music we know as bluegrass.
Sony Legacy, with musician/historian Henry "Hank" Sapoznik, has just released a marvelous three-CD set with 44 Poole songs and 28 other cuts that visit the places his music came from.
This set, titled "You Ain't Talkin' To Me," forms the basis for an hour-long radio special hosted by Cantrell and scheduled on WFUV (90.7 FM) July 4 at 9 p.m.
Like many of his contemporaries, Poole played live on the radio himself during his lifetime. Alas, nothing survives.
Sapoznik, who plays banjo in old-time and klezmer bands, is no stranger to radio, either. He and David Isay shared a Peabody award in 2002 for their NPR series on vintage Yiddish radio.
While Poole is one of his passions, he admits he was "delighted and a little surprised" Legacy wanted to do this set.
"Radio doesn't play this sound much," he says. "But it's some of the most important music in country history. Poole's solo on 'Flop-Eared Mule' in 1929 is the blueprint for what Earl Scruggs 'invented' years later. Poole is the Old Testament and Bill Monroe and Scruggs are the New."
Poole also defined country music's attitude, says Sapoznik, "by linking song and performance."
Poole had "big ears," literally and figuratively. He absorbed field blues, breakdowns, weepy ballads like "Mother's Last Farewell Kiss," topical tunes like "White House Blues" and crowd-pleasing comic numbers like "Hungry Hash House."
"He wasn't scared off by anything," says Sapoznik. "Blues, jazz, Child ballads. He didn't write songs, but he made everything his own - and he always improved it. You listen to other versions of songs like 'Monkey on a String' or 'Liza Jane' and they sound like period pieces. Poole's don't. He put such life in them."
That was also true of Poole's live show.
"He never sat still," says Sapoznik. "He was all over the place. If a fight broke out, he might join that, too."
One night he slammed a cop with his banjo and almost got shot for his trouble.
"He lived a rowdy life," says Sapoznik. "He was the Jerry Lee Lewis of his time."
He had a similar sense of humor, too. For one recording session, he traveled from his native North Carolina to New York, got staggering drunk and lurched into the studio to sing "Goodbye Booze."
Five years later, an epic 13-week bender would kill him. He was 39 years old and on the brink of a trip to Hollywood to write the music for a new talkie., But he had left an indelible mark.
"He wasn't the first country artist," says Sapoznik. "But he was the first country star. His first hit, 'Don't Let Your Deal Go Down,' sold 102,000 records at a time when there were only 600,000 phonographs in the entire South."
"The Deal," as everyone called it, resonated strongly enough that bands like the Flying Burrito Brothers were still cutting new versions 35 years later.
On Cantrell's special, bluegrass veteran Tony Trischka talks about Poole's important in carving out the new and quite different modern role of the banjo.
"Poole had an amazing ability to affect the music," says Sapoznik. "I would argue that you could credibly tell much of the story of America's most important 20th century music through three Charlies - [blues singer] Charlie Patton, Charlie Poole and Charlie Parker."
While Poole's music has been available for some years on the splendid County label, Sapoznik hopes Legacy's release of "You Ain't Talkin' To Me" might bring the kind of attention to Poole that a similar set brought to seminal blues singer Robert Johnson a few years back.
It could also spur his long-overdue entry into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
At the very least, it will give radio listeners a great snapshot of a rich moment in America's musical past.
New York Daily News
Cantrell, Sony salute pioneer Charlie Poole
By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, June 20th, 2005
WFMU's Laura Cantrell has a new CD coming out tomorrow, "Humming by the Flowered Vine," but meanwhile she's taken a moment to host a radio special on one of her musical ancestors: Charlie Poole, a banjo player who may be the most overlooked important musician in country history.
Poole drank himself to death, literally, 74 years ago. But the dozens of records he cut for Columbia and other labels from 1925 to 1930 laid down a critical template for, among other things, the music we know as bluegrass.
Sony Legacy, with musician/historian Henry "Hank" Sapoznik, has just released a marvelous three-CD set with 44 Poole songs and 28 other cuts that visit the places his music came from.
This set, titled "You Ain't Talkin' To Me," forms the basis for an hour-long radio special hosted by Cantrell and scheduled on WFUV (90.7 FM) July 4 at 9 p.m.
Like many of his contemporaries, Poole played live on the radio himself during his lifetime. Alas, nothing survives.
Sapoznik, who plays banjo in old-time and klezmer bands, is no stranger to radio, either. He and David Isay shared a Peabody award in 2002 for their NPR series on vintage Yiddish radio.
While Poole is one of his passions, he admits he was "delighted and a little surprised" Legacy wanted to do this set.
"Radio doesn't play this sound much," he says. "But it's some of the most important music in country history. Poole's solo on 'Flop-Eared Mule' in 1929 is the blueprint for what Earl Scruggs 'invented' years later. Poole is the Old Testament and Bill Monroe and Scruggs are the New."
Poole also defined country music's attitude, says Sapoznik, "by linking song and performance."
Poole had "big ears," literally and figuratively. He absorbed field blues, breakdowns, weepy ballads like "Mother's Last Farewell Kiss," topical tunes like "White House Blues" and crowd-pleasing comic numbers like "Hungry Hash House."
"He wasn't scared off by anything," says Sapoznik. "Blues, jazz, Child ballads. He didn't write songs, but he made everything his own - and he always improved it. You listen to other versions of songs like 'Monkey on a String' or 'Liza Jane' and they sound like period pieces. Poole's don't. He put such life in them."
That was also true of Poole's live show.
"He never sat still," says Sapoznik. "He was all over the place. If a fight broke out, he might join that, too."
One night he slammed a cop with his banjo and almost got shot for his trouble.
"He lived a rowdy life," says Sapoznik. "He was the Jerry Lee Lewis of his time."
He had a similar sense of humor, too. For one recording session, he traveled from his native North Carolina to New York, got staggering drunk and lurched into the studio to sing "Goodbye Booze."
Five years later, an epic 13-week bender would kill him. He was 39 years old and on the brink of a trip to Hollywood to write the music for a new talkie., But he had left an indelible mark.
"He wasn't the first country artist," says Sapoznik. "But he was the first country star. His first hit, 'Don't Let Your Deal Go Down,' sold 102,000 records at a time when there were only 600,000 phonographs in the entire South."
"The Deal," as everyone called it, resonated strongly enough that bands like the Flying Burrito Brothers were still cutting new versions 35 years later.
On Cantrell's special, bluegrass veteran Tony Trischka talks about Poole's important in carving out the new and quite different modern role of the banjo.
"Poole had an amazing ability to affect the music," says Sapoznik. "I would argue that you could credibly tell much of the story of America's most important 20th century music through three Charlies - [blues singer] Charlie Patton, Charlie Poole and Charlie Parker."
While Poole's music has been available for some years on the splendid County label, Sapoznik hopes Legacy's release of "You Ain't Talkin' To Me" might bring the kind of attention to Poole that a similar set brought to seminal blues singer Robert Johnson a few years back.
It could also spur his long-overdue entry into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
At the very least, it will give radio listeners a great snapshot of a rich moment in America's musical past.