Loudon Wainwright III, together with producer Dick Connette, has created one of the most ambitious projects of his career with the 2 CD set High Wide & Handsome - a grand gathering of songs, both old and original, revisiting the life, times and recorded legacy of legendary singer and banjo picker Charlie Poole (1892-1931).

The music ranges from old-timey to dixieland, from parlor songs to acapella gospel, a compendium of the strains that have created and continue to create American popular music. Greil Marcus wrote in his notes for the project, "Poole might have been waiting all these years for someone to talk back to him so completely in his own language; Wainwright might have been waiting since he first heard Charlie Poole to get up the nerve to do it."

Guests on the album include Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, Sloan Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright Roche, the Roches, and Chris Thile.

I met up with Loudon some months back at a gig in Atlanta where he played some of the songs from the CD.  I will certainly be playing some tracks from the new CD on the show and hopefully get a chance to talk to Loudon about the project very soon.