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EDEN — George Underwood recalled the first time he laid eyes on Charlie Poole. He was a boy of 6 or 7 when his father pointed out Poole, who was picking his banjo on a street corner.

Underwood’s father told him that his “eyes got big as silver dollars.”

Underwood relayed that tale at his home Friday while waiting for a BBC film crew to interview him about Poole. Even though it’s more than 70 years later, Underwood’s voice retained the same adoration, awe and respect that he felt as a child.

“He was bigger than life,” said Underwood, 83.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is filming a three-part series on American folk music. A similar one was produced on British folk music.

The project has taken the film crew to several states, including Mississippi and Louisiana. Series producer Jill Nicholls said the segment including Poole will focus on the recording boom of the 1920s. It is scheduled to air in February.

“It’s a big series. It’s very in-depth,” Nicholls said.

Poole stands out not only because of his musical talent, Nicholls said, but also his rich life history.

No one knows that better than Kinney Rorrer, Poole’s biographer and great-nephew by marriage. Rorrer’s father lived with Poole for two years and passed down stories to his son. Like the time Poole convinced a country storekeeper to join a ridiculous bet that Poole could walk on a crate of eggs without breaking one.

“Charlie had a real outrageous sense of humor,” said Rorrer, who lives in Danville, Va.

But Poole, known for his style of three-finger picking, was serious about his music and innovative when it came to making himself known. On payday, he would sit outside the local mills, picking his banjo for a piece of those paychecks. The day Underwood saw him on the corner, Poole had a tin cup for the same purpose.

“He wanted to pick and sing. That’s what he was all about,” Rorrer said.

The crew also interviewed Rorrer for the series. They visited the old Spray Cotton Mills where Poole worked off and on, and filmed footage at the adjoining Nantucket Mill, the proposed site of the National Banjo Center.

Poole helped form the North Carolina Ramblers and would eventually sign on with Columbia Records. Rorrer has that contract, which Poole signed C.C. Poole. Poole’s wife, Lou Emma, helped him practice signing his name.

“For a man who could barely read and write his own name, he did all right,” Rorrer said.

The man and his music have always been revered in Eden, where a festival bearing his name has been held for 13 years. Rorrer is pleased to know that Poole’s talents are renowned internationally.

“It’s nice to see his music appreciated and recognized,” he said.

Poole died at 39 of a heart attack brought on by a drinking binge.

But how Poole died is not how Underwood remembers him. He recalled playing Poole’s tunes on the Victrola and how Poole could take ordinary songs and transform them by changing just a melody or a couple of words. Poole’s style so impressed Underwood — a guitarist with the Carolina Roustabouts — that he performs his songs to this day.

And that’s the Charlie Poole that Underwood shared with Nicholls.

“Charlie Poole revolutionized country music,” Underwood said Friday afternoon. “Charlie Poole is actually the father of country music. To tell you the truth, I love his stuff better than anything that’s ever been put out.”

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com