James Cole

by Eugene ChadbourneJames Cole was one of a small number of black fiddlers from the historic 20s and 30s stringband days whose playing managed to be ed on recording, but he certainly isnt one of any small number of people named James Cole. Factor in a few named Jimmy Cole and there is the making of some kind of not all-star, but cool all-Cole combo. There is even strong reason to believe there were actually two fiddlers from the same era named James Cole, but even some of the most intense detectives from the ethnomusicology department have given up sorting out who is who. Both came out of what would be called country blues, but a more accurate as well as entertaining label is old time hokum blues, a description leading in the directions of jug bands, oldtime music, and a netherworld of forbidden contacts between black and white players. Like many string band players, Cole was skilled on several instruments, recording on both violin and guitar. In the early 30s he cut a series of sides with Tommie Bradley, Buster Johnson, Scrapper Blackwell and Sam Soward; the results of these sessions have been reissued in their entirety, down to the last muffled cough. Cole—or, at least one of them—led a string band that worked under the name of James Coles String Band which may have an Irish influence in the way it fluctuates from major to minor keys, especially if it is the influence of specifically Irish whisky. Sweet Lizzie and Undertaker Blues, simple yet deeply entrancing musical essays on subjects infinitely beautiful and infinitely morbid respectively, are among Coles discographical highlights.