The history of American music is strewn with songwriters whose writing influenced the future of whatever genre they worked in. And while those contributions shouldn’t be made to seem slight under any circumstances, they way in which some of these folks lived has become equally important. Everyone knows Leadbelly did time. Son House did as well. But more over, folks know stuff like Hank Williams died in the back of a car being chauffeured to a gig – he was most likely half in the bag at the time. But before Williams hit the bottle, Charlie Poole and his groups sung about gettin’ loaded and have a roe on occasion. And while the banjo player might be the template for every outlaw country dude goin’, the music that he and the North Carolina Ramblers – or whatever Poole decided to call his group at the time – created has left an indelible mark on not just country, but blues and folk.

In listening to Poole’s nasally drawl, it’s pretty easy to understand his performances as the proper antecedent to the Holy Modal Rounders, who thirty plus years after the banjo player’s death worked up a racket partially using this music as an informative crib sheet. And while that band might be nothing more than a footnote to most, the combination of old tyme tropes with a liberal lyrical perspective drastically changed ‘underground’ music.

With Poole’s output spread over a good two decades, he can be charged with recording well over a hundred sides of country dance music – including “Don’t Let the Deal Go Down,” which may have been recorded as many times as “Sittin’ on Top of the World” by this point. Beyond that standard – as well as “White House Blues” which has aged rather well – Poole eschewed at least some of the raunch that affected country and blues, instead cranking out endless dance numbers, while keeping a handy drinking tune handy. He’s never been considered the greatest musician of his time, but the forms that he helped dictate have carried over to a more modern audience.

But again, the music that Poole set to tape during the teens, twenties and early thirties, while important, seems to be bolstered by the life style that he took up. Gaining a good deal of fame for his touring shows, Poole earned the opportunity to record some soundtrack music in Hollywood in 1931. On his way out to Hollywoodland, though, he was sidetracked by a two week bender, which ostensibly ended his life. Under the care of a doctor the banjo player apparently received an injection to steady him, only to result in some sort of heart problem. Poole, perhaps affected by the general malaise that covered the nation during the Depression, might not have seen the national crisis through to the end, but he certainly was able to provide at least a bit of relief in the form of his string band’s work to alleviate some of the people’s pain. He’s American history – the good kind.