Charlie Poole

Charlie Poole was a titan of the North Carolina string band tradition and a banjo-led string-band modernizer. His complex, three-finger banjo technique echoed the syncopated guitar picking of local Black blues musicians. Poole's repertoire heavily featured ragtime and blues-inflected ballads like 'Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues,' making him a vital link between 19th-century minstrelsy, old-time mountain music, and the burgeoning blues record industry.