The North Carolina Ramblers

Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers were an American string band that recorded many popular songs with banjo, fiddle and guitar from 1925 to 1930. Of the founding fathers and mothers of country music and bluegrass, Charlie Poole has remained a shadowy figure -- until now. Born in rural North Carolina in 1892, Poole packed several lifetimes of hard and fast living into his 39 years. Textile mill worker, semi-pro ballplayer, and hell raiser supreme (he died in 1931 of alcoholism)