High Wide and Handsome - The Charlie Poole Project

charlie poole and loudon wainwright lll are two names you might not expect to find in close proximity. in fact, unless you were a follower of pop music in the 1970s or a serious student of old time string music from the 1920s, you may not even recognize them. if you do know their music, however, the pairing makes perfect sense. both men came to the public's attention quite suddenly with a hit recording. poole only lived another six years after his debut in 1925, and wainwright never regained the spotlight after his 1973 hit, dead skunk. both men's music has a vein of cynicism, often directed inward, and both showed a knack for humorous, clever, yet insightful songs. wainwright has taken charlie poole on for his next project, a 2 cd set to be followed by a documentary film. the songs mix many of poole's songs with traditional favourites he recorded, and a number of wainwright originals that either tell of poole's life, or are imaginings of his life and times. the sound is a mish mash of styles that works well with wainwright's creaky tenor voice, and the occasionally oddball charlie poole repertoire.