Many folks don't always realize the profound influence that early pop music has had on traditional string band and old time music as we know it today. One of the great pioneers of the 78 era of old time music was Charlie Poole. A few years ago, Sony Music issued a box set of 3 cds containing many Charlie Poole recordings and earlier pop recordings of the same songs. This set did a great job demonstrating the influence of early popular music on old time.
Well, just tonight at a friend's house, I heard the record pictured above and was excited to find yet another song that obviously directly influenced Charlie Poole. Charlie had to have either owned a copy of this record himself or heard it numerous times, because in 1929 his band recorded a skit record for Brunswick records in which he performs this version of Turkey in the Straw. I have uploaded a dub of the Harmony 78 and the excerpt from Charlie's record where he sings this Turkey in the Straw.
Its a rare opportunity to be able to listen to something that we can be nearly certain that one of the greats in old time music listened too as well!
Enjoy!
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The artist is Billy Golden. He must have recorded this bout 20 times for different labels with some variations. Charlie Poole definately had a copy!
ReplyDeletePoole had a large record collection of jazz, pop, tin pan alley... what a great find!
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