Loudon Wainwright III - High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project
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CD Details
Artist: Loudon Wainwright IIIEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2009-08-18
Music Label: 2nd Story Sound Records
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- High Wide & Handsome
- Took My Gal Out Walkin'
- I'm the Man Who Rode the Mule Around the World
- My Mother and My Sweetheart
- Bill Mason's Bride
- Goodbye Booze
- Old Ballyhoo
- Little Waterloo
- I'm Glad I'm Married
- Mother's Last Farewell Kiss
- Acres of Diamonds
- Way Up in NYC
- If I Lose
- The Great Reaping Day
- Where the Whippoorwill Is Whispering Goodnight
- The Man in the Moon
- The Deal
- No Knees
- Moving Day
- Old and Only in the Way
- Ragtime Annie
- Sweet Sunny South
- The Letter That Never Came
- Awful Hungry Hash House
- Rowena
- Didn't He Ramble
- Ramblin' Blues
- Charlie's Last Song
- Beautiful
- High Wide & Handsome (Reprise)
Music reviews of High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project
Music Review: A stunning folk/old-timey tribute album
Rating: 5 Stars
Loudon Wainwright III
"High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project"
(Second Story, 2009)
This 2-CD set is a bold, brilliant tribute to Charlie Poole, one of the early old-timey country music superstars of the Great Depression, with singer-satirist Loudon Wainwright III taking a surprising, refreshing foray into earnest, straightforward traditional folk music.
Charlie Poole was a notorious ne'er-do-well, a hard-drinking musical prodigy from a small town in North Carolina who became a star in the 1920s. Like many artists of the era, he was poorly paid for his work, and while his records sold well, he found it hard to make ends meet. Poole was an accomplished musician, one of the best clawhammer banjo players of his time, and a sly, humorous singer. Eventually, the hard-living performer drank himself to death in 1931, as the economy collapsed and record sales fell flat -- Wainwright explores this mixed legacy, both the glory and the pathos, crafting a remarkable portrait that pierces the veil of time to present Poole as a three-dimensional person -- playful, boisterous, flawed and charismatic.
Wainwright bookends cover versions of old classics with new compositions that illuminate Poole's life. The first is the title track, "High Wide & Handsome," a masterpiece of bragadoccio that paints the singer as a lusty, vibrant scoundrel, a charming, charismatic braggart and lover of the good life -- in short, a rock star. Other Wainwright originals include "Way Up In New York City," which tells the tale of Poole going to the big city to record his first big hit, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues," a single on Columbia that sold over a 100,000 copies in 1925 -- Poole and his trio got paid seventy-five bucks, a pat on the back and a train ride home. Nonetheless, he went on to be an immensely popular performer with the wide palette of a classic vaudeville entertainer. Here, Wainwright moves deftly through Poole's repertoire of ribald comedy songs (such as "Moving Day," "If I Lose" and "I'm The Man Who Rode The Mule Around The World") as well as sweet, lachrymose, shamelessly sentimental weepers such as "The Letter That Never Came," "Old And Only In The Way," "Mother's Last Farewell Kiss," and the gorgeous "My Mother And My Sweetheart." In a similar vein are several religious songs that Poole is reported to have performed regularly, but not recorded, and these are performed by Wainwright and his crew with stunning sincerity and emotional depth.
Joining LW3 are co-producer Dick Connette, Wainwright's wife, Suzzy Roche, their daughter Lucy, and Lucy's immensely talented aunts (aka the Roches) as well as Loudon's own sibling, Sloane Wainwright and others in their orbit. Suzzy Roche delivers a grand slam on the weary waltz that opens Disc Two, "Man In The Moon," in which the character of Poole's wife laments married life with a irredeemable rambling man -- for me, this is the song which cements the biographical-literary elements of this album, with its haunting melody and a beautiful performance by Roche. And then there's Loudon: a wry, sarcastic performer, he taps directly into the humorous elements of Poole's work, and brings them into a modern framework... Leaving behind the raspy, antique sound of Poole's old recordings, Wainwright lets modern listeners tap directly into the humor of the songs, without hearing them as mere museum pieces. He also shows a not-too-surprising ability to connect with the sentimentality of the old-style weepers, and the passionate, otherworldly yearnings of the gospel tunes.
In short, this collection in a real knockout: look for Loudon up on the platform when they're announcing the Grammys this year. (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue Guide To Country Music)
Description of High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project
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