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Brownie McGhee (left) with Leslie Riddle, Kingsport, Tennessee, in the 1920s.
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Larry Howell introducing Riddle songs, Riddlefest 2013.
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Prof. Lee Bidgood, left, with ETSU students Kris Truelsen and Amythyst Kiah, Riddlefest 2014.
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Robin Dreyer photo
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Dom Flemons performing at Riddlefest 2019.
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Seminar with Detroit bluesmen Rev. Robert Jones and Matt Watroba, Riddlefest 2022.
RiddleFest is produced annually by Traditional Voices Group as a tribute to Lesley Riddle, an African-American musician from Yancey County NC, who influenced the development of early country music through his collaboration with A.P. Carter and the Carter Family in the late 1920s.
Riddle, along with Carter, was an innovator who straddled the worlds of black and white mountain musicians in early twentieth century Appalachia. He was born in 1905 in the western part of Yancey County but spent his youthful years migrating between family homes there and Kingsport TN. He met A.P. Carter in Kingsport in 1927. Thus began a friendship and musical partnership with The First Family of Country Music that spanned several years. Riddle stayed with the Carter family, including Sara and Maybelle, in Mace’s Springs VA, and they learned many of the old gospel, blues and railroad tunes from Lesley’s repertoire. Maybelle also watched the young black man’s slide and finger picking guitar technique and adapted much of it to her style—a style that countless country pickers have emulated. A.P. and Lesley traveled to remote hollows throughout the southern Appalachian Mountains collecting old songs. Carter wrote down the lyrics and Riddle played along and memorized the melodies. After returning to the Springs, the Carters and Riddle would re-work the tunes into versions acceptable for the recording studio.
As the Carter Family's star rose after 1932, Riddle's life passed into obscurity. Eventually he moved to Rochester NY with his new wife and set his guitar aside. About 1970, musician and musicologist Mike Seeger rediscovered Riddle and recorded the songs he remembered from his days of collecting. These original recordings are collected on the album Step by Step produced by Rounder Records. Riddle returned to the southern mountains later in life and died in Asheville in 1979. An historical marker is located on the south side of Hwy 19E near Windy Hill Lane, just west of the town of Burnsville.
RiddleFest was created in 2008 by Larry Howell and other Burnsville musicians to honor Riddle's memory. Each year, musicians who have contributed to the legacy of traditional Appalachian music and the artistry of its many innovations are invited to headline the RiddleFest Concert and discuss their unique contributions to the genre in an afternoon RiddleFest Seminar. Artists who have played for RiddleFest audiences include Mike Seeger, David Holt, Dom Flemons, Laura Boosinger, Scott Ainslie, Michael Reno Harrell, Josh Goforth and Prof. Lee Bidgood with his students from East Tennessee State University.
This year's headliner is Jontavious Willis. A young singer-songwriter from Greenville GA, Willis plays the blues. Like Riddle, he is a self-taught musician, who grew up singing gospel music at the Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church with his grandfather. Willis plays all types of country blues, including Delta, Piedmont, Texas, and Gospel blues. As a multi-instrumentalist, he is equally adept as a finger-picker, flat-picker and slide player. Willis will present a seminar on the blues, explaining the origins and character of traditional country blues, focusing on the Piedmont blues that was Lesley Riddle's genre. He will also explain from his own experience as a songwriter how the blues is evolving in the 21st century. The free Seminar, on Saturday October 21, is sponsored by NC Humanities, the North Carolina affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
RiddleFest 2023 is Saturday, October 21, at the Burnsville Town Center. The Seminar, 3-4 PM, is free and open to the public. Admission to the Concert, which begins at 7 PM, is $20 at the door or in advance through eventbrite.com. For further information, visit traditionalvoicesgroup.org or call the Burnsville Town Center at 828-682-7209. RiddleFest is sponsored by Yancey County Travel and Tourism, Explore Burnsville, and Town of Burnsville.