Outside of hardcore bluegrass fans, Charlie Moore is not widely known. That’s a pity because, as you’ll hear, he had the perfect voice for bluegrass.

He attracted plenty of superior musicians to his band, The Dixie Partners. That’s Butch Robins, who would later become a Blue Grass Boy, on banjo; and Paul “Moon” Mullins, Joe’s daddy, tearing it up on fiddle.

You know this tune. It’s from the pen of Hank Williams, and it’s called “I’ll Fly Away”.

Chubby Wise and Butch Robins recorded this one while they were with Charlie Moore’s band. I love how their two styles mesh so well – Wise’s bluesy swing, the groundwork for which was laid in Bill Monroe’s “Heavy Traffic Ahead” – and Robins’s melodic banjo, which anticipated his solo work.

This is “Chubby’s Lonesome Blues”.