Charlie Poole You Ain't Talking To Me

Charlie Poole was one of a handful of individuals recording country music in the days before The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers made the music popular in the late Twenties. Poole and his band, “The North Carolina Ramblers,” were one of the most popular and prolific of the “hillbilly” bands to record in the mid-Twenties. Traditional country was rich and colorful, and Poole was one of the best from its early days.

Poole was born in Eden, North Carolina, in 1892. He was a banjo player, and he and his band, the North Carolina Ramblers, made their first recording, “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down.” in 1925. Poole wrote songs that reflected the harsh realities of life for the southern poor and his own struggles with alcoholism, a disease which would eventually kill him.

Songs such as "You Ain't Talking To Me," “Can I Sleep in your Barn Tonight Mister,” “Take a Drink on Me,” and “All Go Hungry Hash House” paint vivid pictures of that life. Poole even dabbled in the political arena with his classic, “White House Blues.”

Several compilations exist with these songs and many more.

The Carter Family: The First Family of Country Music

The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers are the two artists most responsible for the early development of the country music industry. Before them, the folk music of the Appalachian region of the United States was folk music played by locals for their own amusement, and it remained a regional art form. The music was casually referred to as just “Hillbilly Music.” The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers were not the first country artists to record, Charlie Poole, Ernest Stoneman, Eck Robertson and others had made recordings before them, but Rodgers and the Carters turned hillbilly music into pop music.

The original Carter F

amily consisted of the sisters, guitarist Maybelle, and lead singer Sara, and occasional back-up singer A.P., Sara’s husband. The family hailed from Clinch Mountain, Virginia.

The Carter Family first recorded in Bristol, Tennessee for record producer, Ralph Peer, in 1927. They were paid 50 dollars for each song they recorded. Among those songs were “Wandering Boy” and “Poor Orphan Child” which Victor released as a single in the fall of 1927.

The next year, 1928, saw the Carter Family in the Victor studios in Camden, New Jersey, where they recorded their classics, “Keep on the Sunny Side,” “Can the Circle be Unbroken,” “Wildwood Flower,” “River of Jordan,” and many others. They were not paid for these recordings, but were promised royalties based on sales. By 1930, the Carter Family had sold over 300, 000 records in the United States.

Not only are these recordings historically significant, they are aesthetically pleasing, too. The Carters were a great string band that displayed technical brilliance and perfectly sung harmonies. Mother Maybelle was a brilliant guitarist who invented a guitar picking technique that was adopted by scads of country guitarists in subsequent years.

The Carter Family is one of the most important artists of the 20th century, and they must be heard by anyone who wishes to understand the development of American popular music. The best compilations of the Carter Family’s classic sides include the following releases: The Original and Great Carter Family” (1962), “In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain” (2000), “Wildwood Flower” (2000), and “1927-1934” (2002).

Bill Monroe: The Father of Bluegrass Music

Bill Monroe is among the most important figures in the history of country music, and it was Monroe who almost single-handedly invented bluegrass music. He is known as the “Father of Bluegrass,” and the music bears the nickname of his home state, Kentucky, the “Bluegrass State.” Monroe was born in Rosine, Kentucky, in 1913.

Bill Monroe was one of the finest mandolin players in country music, and it was his mastery of that instrument that has made the mandolin a mandatory part of every bluegrass band. Monroe’s love of the blues and gospel music and his high-pitched singing became signature elements of the bluegrass genre and would later become a requirement of the genre.

Bill Monroe and his long time backing band, the “Bluegrass Boys,” recorded songs that are now bluegrass and country music standards such as “New Mule Skinner Blues,” “Heavy Traffic Ahead,” “Uncle Pen,” “In the Pines,” “Working on a Building,” and “I Saw the Light.”

Monroe wrote and was the first to record the classic song, “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” which would later become one of Elvis Presley’s first hits with Sun records during the emergence of rock and roll. In recognition of his influence on early rockers, Monroe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

Monroe died in Springfield, Kentucky in 1996.

Monroe’s best recordings include the albums, “Knee Deep in Bluegrass” (1958), “Bean Blossom” (1973), “The Essential Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys 1945-1949” (1992), and “The Music of Bill Monroe from 1936 to 1994” (1994).