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Portraits from our Past:
FAMOUS MUSICIANS
Southwest Virginia Music
LESLIE RIDDLE
(PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE)
(Music: 1920's -
1940's)
Lesley Riddle , known to his friends and family as
"Esley," was an African-American bluesman, guitarist,
and songwriter. After playing a tune for A.P. Carter of the Carter
Family, in Kingsport, Tennessee, Esley was invited home to Maces
Springs by A.P. This began a relationship between the two, with
Esley living on-and-off for about five years at Maces Springs
in Scott County, Virginia, while he traveled with A.P. on song-collecting
trips. The Carter Family eventually recorded a number of adaptations
of songs borrowed from Riddle including "Bear Creek Blues,"
"March Wings Goin'," "Blow My Blues Away"
and "Lonesome For You."
When Riddle traveled with A.P.,
he acted as a human recorder by learning the songs and teaching
them to Sara and Maybelle. Riddle's guitar work influenced the
playing of Maybelle Carter who incorporated Riddle's blues lick
into her style. Maybelle's guitar style became the famous "Carter
Scratch."
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