Charlie Poole - You Ain't Talkin' to Me: Charlie Poole and the Roots of Country Music at Music Hills.com

Music CD 1

Shootin' Creek
Baltimore Fire
Leaving Home
There'll Come a Time
White House Blues
Highwayman
Hungry Hash House
Letter That Never Came
Take a Drink on Me
Husband and Wife Were Angry One Night
Ramblin' Blues
Took My Gal A-Walkin'
Old and Only in the Way
Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues
Bill Mason
Kiss Waltz - North Carolina Ramblers, Posey Rorer
Flop Eared Mule - Highlanders
Trip to New York, Pt. 1
Sweet Sixteen
Write a Letter to My Mother
If the River Was Whiskey
Mother's Last Farewell Kiss
Milwaukee Blues
Where the Whippoorwill Is Whispering Good-Night

Music CD 2

Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee
Sunny Tennessee
Bulldog Down in Sunny Tennessee - Doc Walsh,
Moving Day
It's Movin' Day
Home Sweet, Home - Frank Jenkins
I'm the Man That Rode the Mule 'Round the World
Man That Rode the Mule Around the World - Sid Harkreader, Uncle Dave Macon
Lynchburg Town - Highlanders
Going Down to Lynchburg Town/Don't Let Your Deal Go Down - The Blue Ridge Highballers
Some One
Monkey on a String - Cal Stewart
Monkey on a String
Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister
May I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight, Mister - Red Fox Chasers
Married Life Blues - Byron Parker
Infanta March - Fred Van Eps
Sunset March
I'll Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms
Goodbye Eliza Jane - Peerless Quartet
Good-Bye Sweet Liza Jane
Good-Bye Booze
Goodbye Booze - Fate Norris, Gid Tanner
You Ain't Talking to Me - Eddie Morton
You Ain't Talkin' to Me

Music CD 3

If I Lose, I Don't Care
Battleship of Maine - Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers
Budded Rose
Standing by a Window - Clay "Henry" Everhart,
Uncle Dave's Beloved Solo - Uncle Dave Macon
Come Take a Trip in My Airship - Billy Murray
I Once Loved a Sailor
Dixie Medley [From Spooning and Ballooning] - Carl Freed,
My Wife, She Has Gone and Left Me - Kelly Harrell,
My Wife Went Away and Left Me
Baby Rose - Billy Murray
Just Keep Waiting Till the Good Time Comes
Shuffle Feet, Shuffle - Fisher Hendley, Marshall Small, Henry Whitter
Coon From Tennessee
Coon From Tennessee - The Georgia Crackers
On the Banks of the Kaney
Dixie Medley - Fred Van Eps
Southern Medley
Man That Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man - Charlie Parker, Mack Woolbright
Sweet Sunny South
Take Me Back to the Sweet Sunny South
Oh! Didn't He Ramble - Arthur Collins
He Rambled

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

Music Review: A history lesson in Country Music
Rating: 4 Stars

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

The cover illustration by R. Crumb and the photos enclosed within hardly hint at Poole's being one of country music's earliest outlaws--rather, they portray him as a coiffed businessman-cum-banjo. It is in the three discs and the 35-page booklet that we begin to see a true picture of Charlie Poole. Though he didn't write the songs, he sang his rough-and-tumble life in the ones he chose: "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister?," "Husband and Wife Were Angry One Night," and "I'm the Man That Rode the Mule 'Round the World." These are songs of a simple and stubborn man in trying times. It's not all misery and strife though. The pure George Formby style of "Monkey on a String" hints at a lighter side. "Sunset March" (inspired by Fred van Eps's "Infanta March," also included in this set) may be the track that best gets at Poole's banjo style.

"Hellions both, the pair loved nothing more than traveling, raising Cain, playing music, and having a drink, and another tune, and another drink."
--Henry "Hank" Sapoznik on Poole and close friend Posey Wilson Rorrer (from the booklet)

It's not the lightning speed that the world would hear in the bluegrass greats, but a unique clawhammer arpeggio plucking style that comes across rough yet streetwise, like the player himself.

Not all the tracks in this set are performed by Poole, hence the subtitle ...and the Roots of Country Music. Also included are a couple dozen tracks recorded by Poole's mentors and contemporaries, giving excellent context to Poole's work. The term "bluegrass" was yet to be coined and the country outlaw profile was still a good 20 years away. It's surprising to learn that Charlie Poole only recorded and released records during a five-year period leading up to the hell-bent bender that led directly to his death at 39.

In terms of packaging, this box set is top-notch. The design, typography, and photographs are as genuine as the music. The booklet contains a brief introduction by Roanoke, Virginia, DJ Kinney Rorrer, whose father was close with Poole. Also included are accounts of Charlie's run-ins with hecklers, women, and the law, as well as an in-depth bio that surely contains the majority of what is known of his short life. Perhaps only Rorrer's out-of-print Rambling Blues: The Life and Songs of Charlie Poole reveals more about this grandfather of country music and godfather to country ruffians. --Peter Hilgendorf