Loudon Wainwright III's new CD set, High Wide & Handsome, is released on August 17th 2009 in a lavish book style format with 72 page booklet.
Banjo player and singer Charlie Poole was one of Loudon's first models when he began singing and playing over 40 years ago.
Now, together with producer/songwriter Dick Connette, he has put together a double album dedicated to the music and life of his early inspiration. Most of the songs recast the original recordings from the 20's and 30's, but Wainwright and Connette have also written 9 new songs around and about Poole's life and times.
The album features over 20 singers and musicians, including Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Sloan Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright Roche, David Roche, the Roches (Maggie, Terre, and Suzzy), and such luminaries of the jazz and folk worlds as Paul Asaro, Erik Friedlander, Tim Luntzel, Matt Munisteri, Ben Perowsky, Wade Schuman, Marcus Rojas, C. J. Camerieri, Gabriel Kahane, David Mansfield, Chaim Tannenbaum, Rayna Gellert, Rob Moose, and featuring a special guest appearance by mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile. From string quartet to swing trio, from old timey string band to a cappella gospel, what they've found in the Poole repertoire, besides the expected nascent country and bluegrass, has been astounding in its range - sentimental songs, vaudeville songs, minstrel songs, early jazz songs, British Ballad variants, Dixie melodies, comedy routines - it’s like a condensed compendium of all the strains that have created and continue to create American popular music. Loudon Wainwright III wrote "Dead Skunk" in 15 minutes in 1972 -- #12 in the Billboard chart (the #1 single in Little Rock, Arkansas, for six weeks). He recorded twenty albums and has had two Grammy nominations. His songs have been covered by Johnny Cash, Earl Scruggs, Freakwater, Norma Waterson, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and most recently, Rufus Wainwright. Dick Connette has had two CDs of his project, Last Forever, released by Nonesuch. In addition, he wrote arrangements for Loudon Wainwright III's Last Man on Earth and Maggie and Suzzy Roche's Zero Church, and produced Geoff Muldaur's Private Astronomy, released by Deutsche Grammophon. Most recently, one of his songs was covered by Martin Simpson on his BBC 2 award-winning album, Prodigal Son.
Tracklisting:
CD 1:
1. High wide & handsome (2:49)
2. Took my gal out walkin' (2:32)
3. I' m the man who rode the mule around the world (3:35)
4. My mother and my sweetheart (3:11)
5. Bill Mason' s bride (2:55)
6. Goodbye booze (2:53)
7. Old Ballyhoo (1:58)
8. Little waterloo (2:53)
9. I' m glad I' m married (3:31)
10. Mother' s last farewell kiss (4:44)
11. Acress of diamonds (2:47)
12. Way up in NYC (4:06)
13. If I lose (3:58)
14. The great reaping day (2:49)
15. Where the whippoourwill is whispering goodnight (3:22)

CD 2:
1. The man in the moon (2:32)
2. The deal (4:09)
3. No knees (2:22)
4. Moving day (2:37)
5. Old and only in the way (3:44)
6. Ragtime Annie (3:33)
7. Sweet sunny south (2:41)
8.. The letter that never came (3:07)
9.. Awful hungry hash house (4:28)
10. Rowena (2:32)
11. Didn' t he ramble (3:59)
12. Ramblin' blues (3:59)
13. Charlie' s last song (4:59)
14. Beautiful (4:00)
15. High wide & handsome (2:07)
Released 2009.