Dougie Poole

Live records are a tricky bunch to get just right. The kind that span a tour might cull from the best takes, but the patchwork process can leave an uneven feeling, less of a moment in time and more of a sanitized vision of the live experience. There’s a certain strain of country album where the room makes the record. Johnny Cash at San Quentin often comes to mind, but perhaps the crown jewel of the bunch is Townes at The Old Quarter. The record packs Van Zandt into a sweaty Texas bar for a definitive set punctuated by his troubadour’s charms. It’s the kind of record that translates the temperament of the bar right through the speakers. I’d have to think that Live At The Old Quarter is just what Dougie Poole had in mind when he set up a rig at the (rightfully) revered Upstate NY spot Tubby’s.

The small bar has served as the backdrop to more than one live document and as the tape rolls on Poole’s official boot it’s just as easy to feel the walls of the Kingston bar as it is to squeeze into a seat at The Old Quarter. Elbow to elbow next to the stage, Poole’s heavy-hearted odes glint off the disco ball and soak the Narraganset sweat from the stage rim. On record, Poole has a way of making his songs feel intimate; a conversational exchange between the songwriter and the listener, but here the last remaining barriers of the studio fall away. On classics like “Nothing on This Earth Can Make Me Smile” and “Vaping On The Job” the ramble of strings and the sigh of steel seem so close you can reach out and touch them.

The recording, captured by Nick Panken was taken home by Poole and fed into the 8 track, turning a two channel wonder into something that feels bigger than the walls of Tubby’s could possibly contain. It turns a live document into an ultra vivid memory, brightening the hues and bolding the edges. With the songs stripped back to their essential essence and Panken and Poole’s treatment of the sound, the record finds itself sliding easily into the revered ranks of live music’s best. Even if Tubby’s isn’t your local, it can serve as such for as long as At Tubby’s is on the turntable, reliving the ramble time and time again.

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