TNN Weekly Weekend Reward

September 19, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Weekly Weekend Reward 

This weekend’s Reward is two Charlie Poole songs — “White House Blues” and “He Rambled”—  one by the master, and one by a devotee  who has mastered the oeuvre and even successfully supplemented it.

The Wainwright family, and all its various roots and branches, has been responsible for some of the best American popular and folk music of the last half century.  Now the patriarch —Loudon Wainwright III—  has produced a 2-CD retrospective-hommage masterpiece: High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project.

“A crazier version of Jimmie Rogers”:  Charlie Poole circa 1923.

Charlie Poole (1892-1931) was born in Eden, North Carolina.  As music blogger Robert Baird nicely and accurately put it, he was “sort of a crazier version of Jimmie Rodgers. He was a drinker, raconteur, baseball player, ladies man, the works.”  Poole developed his unique three fingered banjo picking style after he said he could catch a baseball without a glove, closed his hand too soon, and ended up with a broken thumb that left his hand permanently arched.

Didn’t he ramble: A postcard picture of New York’s Bowery sent by Charlie Poole on a lonely afternoon in July 1920 in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Poole used the southern phrase high wide and handsome to describe the way he wanted to die.  But he died at 34 in 1931, after what was supposed to be a three month drinking binge.  A story survives —and sounds strangely familiar today— that it wasn’t the alcohol that killed him, but an injection by some local doctor who was, presumably, intending to counter the effects of the booze.

Charlie Poole wrote few if any of the many songs he sang and recorded.  Loudon Wainwright has chosen a terrific selection of Poole’s range — including some of the humorous songs, all of which are endearing, and some of which are actually still funny.  He has also written some original material that reflects Poole’s inspiration.  You can hear four of them here (including the goose-bumb-beautiful “Beautiful”).   There is a lot to be enjoyed —and learned— on Wainwright’s Charlie Poole Project website.

Unfortunately, at least so far, there are no really good videos from the album.  There is an interesting documentary, but it interrupts the songs with commentary; and there are a few amateur performance videos of poor quality.  But please don’t let that discourage you from getting this superb album.  Trust me now, and you can thank me later.

With his group the North Carolina Ramblers, Charlie Poole made many records for the Columbia label during the period 1925-1930 — including the first ever major country hit “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down Blues.”

Another hit was  ”White House Blues” — a contemporary song about the assassination of President McKinley by a gunman at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in September 1901, and the accession of his Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.

McKinley he hollered,
McKinley he squalled
The doctor said
“McKinley, I can’t find that ball”
From Buffalo to Washington

Roosevelt in the White House,
he’s doin’ his best
McKinley in the graveyard,
he’s takin’ his rest
He’s gone a long old time

Hush up little children,
now don’t you fret
You’ll draw a pension
at your papa’s death
From Buffalo to Washington

Roosevelt in the White House,
drinkin’ out of a silver cup
McKinley in the graveyard,
he never wakes up
He’s gone a long, long time

Ain’t but the one thing
that grieves my mind
That is to die
and leave my poor wife behind
I’m gone a long old time

Standing at the station,
just lookin’ at the time
See by it you’re running
by half-past nine
From Buffalo to Washington

Pay in the train,
she’s just on time
She’ll run a thousand miles
from eight o’clock till nine
From Buffalo to Washington

Yonder comes the train,
she’s comin’ down the line
Throwin’ them a station message:
McKinley’s a-dyin’
It’s hard times, hard times

Look a-here, you rascal,
you see what you’ve done
You shot my husband
with that Ivor Johnson gun
Carry him back to Washington

The doc told the horse,
he tore down the rein
Said to that horse,
“You’ve got to outrun this train
From Buffalo to Washington”

Doctor came a-running,
taked off his specs
Said “Mr. McKinley,
better cash in your checks
You’re bound to die, bound to die”

Well, Roosevelt’s in the White House,
doing his best
McKinley’s in the graveyard
taking his rest
He’s gone, for a long time

.

Here’s Charlie Pool and the New North Carolina Ramblers’ 1925 recording of “He Rambled”:

And here’s Loudon Wainwright singing “Didn’t He Ramble” last summer in New York’s Madison Square Park last June:

In the likely event that the Wainwright CD inspires an interest in the original material, the Poole recordings are easily available.  Probably the best of the lot is the three CD collection of remastered originals titled You Ain’t Talkin’ To Me, that comes in what looks like an old cigar box and includes an interesting booklet.

R. Crumb provided the cover art for the 3-CD box set of Charlie Poole’s 1920s recordings.

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