Produced by T-Bone Burnett. Features Blue Glass Fall, Reunion, Apartment, Moon. Sim Cain, drums; John Abbey, bass; Marc Ribot, guitar.

This is the album that started it all for David Poe. But it should not be blamed for everything. Nor should producer T-Bone Burnett, engineer Susan Rogers, drummer Sim Cain, bassist John Abbey or guest guitarist

Produced by T-Bone Burnett. Features Blue Glass Fall, Reunion, Apartment, Moon. Sim Cain, drums; John Abbey, bass; Marc Ribot, guitar.

This is the album that started it all for David Poe. But it should not be blamed for everything. Nor should producer T-Bone Burnett, engineer Susan Rogers, drummer Sim Cain, bassist John Abbey or guest guitarist Marc Ribot, all of whom figured prominently in this record that is at times exuberant but more often hushed, frequently comic and always ambitious.

Songs like Reunion and Moon showed that David knew what he was doing sometimes, and the sorta-single Blue Glass Fall was played by responsible radio outlets around the world, taking David along with it.

Also notable in this set are Ribot's excellent guitar work on Apartment and The Settlement, and the always-exquisite playing of bassist John Abbey and drummer Sim Cain, who Poe often introduced onstage as "the greatest drummer in the world," and meant it.

An in-demand percussionist who had already played with everyone from Henry Rollins to The Chocolate Genius, Sim became a colleague, friend, producer and mentor while Poe swerved as sound engineer at CBGB's 313 Gallery, the songwriter/spoken word/avant-garde/hip-hop joint adjacent to the venerated punk rock club on the Bowery in Manhattan. On guitar, drums and increasing amounts of alcohol, Cain and Poe played around New York as a duo, dubbing themselves "The Christ Brothers." Within a year, then-bearded, long-haired John Abbey -- "a dead ringer for Him," Poe exclaimed -- joined the group and a clutch of recordings made their way into the clutches of the large, pink Sony Music building, where David would be held for the next five years.

"David Poe gives the singer-songwriter genre a much-needed jolt," wrote Rolling Stone of his debut. "Call him The Untroubadour."