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Riddle and the Carters

[edit]

A couple of lines in this article have been disputed. I think that the sources support the material that has been removed, I'd like to restore at least some of what they have to say.

Here is the text in contention:

Compare the source:

He was a greatly talented musician who made an undeniable impact on the sound of the Carter Family, thus influencing country music as a whole.[1]

Or from the Smithsonian Institution's "Birthplace of Country Music":

it is his contribution to country music for which he is most remembered (...) Riddle taught the Carter Family such songs as "The Cannon Ball," "I Know What It Means To Be Lonesome," and "Let the Church Roll On."[2]

This link had gone stale -- I fixed that. In any case, the sources are clear that Riddle's association with the Carter family was an influential one.

The other disputed text is:

  • Riddle's guitar technique made an impression on Maybelle Carter. Her adaptation became known as the "Carter scratch".[3]

In this case, the reference was deleted along with the text. The source says:

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."

By comparison, Riddle's biography at the "Birthplace of Country Music" says:

Maybelle Carter credited Riddle with teaching her the "bottleneck" style of guitar picking, in which the index finger plays the melody while the thumb keeps the rhythm on the bass strings.[4]

And the University of North Carolina says:

Maybelle Carter (...) is noted as having learned much in the way of guitar technique from Mr. Riddle.[5]

Each source asserts that Riddle taught Carter techniques that she incorporated into her own distinctive style. While it ought to be clear, as one editor put in the comments, that Riddle "did not 'teach' Maybelle her signature Carter Scratch", it should also be clear that Riddle made a direct and notable contribution to her style.

If anyone has access to the interviews where Carter describes the origin of the Scratch style, please add them to the article as references.

Some time ago, I added this information to Maybelle Carter and Carter Family picking, with sources, one of which included Maybelle Carter herself:
{{cite audio | people = Carter, Maybelle | date = May 30, 2009 | title = Mother Maybelle Carter talks about Autoharps and Fingerpicking | url = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhSSwwQifJE#t=2m20s | format = YouTube video | medium = audio recording | publisher = YouTube | accessdate = Jan. 26, 2012 | time = 2:20 | quote = I'll play a little bit of a tune here [in] the style that I learned from a colored man that used to come to our house and play guitar, and he played with his finger and his thumb.... His name was [L]eslie Riddles.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://tvgnc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5:leslie-riddle-bio&catid=6&Itemid=3 |title= The Lesley Riddle Story |year = 2011 |publisher= Traditional Voices Group |location= 113 Green Mountain Drive, Burnsville, NC |accessdate= Jan. 26, 2012 |quote= [W]hen Seeger was recording Lesley, he could see and hear the similarities between Lesley's picking style and that of Maybelle Carter so he asked him if he ever gave her lessons. Lesley replied, 'No, I didn't have to. She would just watch and learn. She was that good.'}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity|last= Peterson|first= Richard A. |date= Nov. 24, 1997|publisher= University of Chicago Press|location= Chicago, IL |isbn= 978-0-226-66284-8|page= 41 |url= http://books.google.com/books?id=J3zWpIOLB-MC&lpg=PA41&pg=PA41#v=onepage&q&f=false|accessdate= Jan. 26, 2012 |quote= Leslie Riddle, an African American guitar player, ... taught Maybelle Carter how to play melody and pick rhythm on the guitar at the same time—a style for which she became famous.}}
Unfortunately, the YouTube video that included the words of Maybelle Carter has been taken down by now.
Incidentally, why ought it be clear that 'Riddle "did not 'teach' Maybelle her signature Carter Scratch'? Those words sound like hedging to me: it's quite possible that Maybelle's version constituted "a distinctive style of her own", to be sure, but I don't see how this is supposed to be clear to me. Mother Maybelle herself called it "the style that I learned from ...[L]eslie Riddles". JudahH (talk) 13:31, 15 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]
[edit]

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