Lesley Riddle

Lesley "Esley" Riddle (June 13, 1905 – July 13, 1979) and she incorporated elements of it into her style.

In 1937, Riddle got married and in 1942, moved to Rochester, New York. Riddle also made appearances at the Smithsonian Folk Festival and the Mariposa Folk Festival.

Riddle died in July 1979, in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1993, a selection from the sessions with Mike Seeger was released by Rounder Records as Step By Step: Lesley Riddle Meets The Carter Family: Blues, Country & Sacred Songs.

On July 31, 2009, a stage production about Riddle's life, including his time with and influence on the Carter Family, had its world premier at the Parkway Playhouse in Burnsville, North Carolina, Riddle's birthplace. The show featured biographical details of his life, plus versions of songs as he played them, and then again as the Carters played them. The production was called Esley: The Life and Music of Lesley Riddle, written by Jeff Douglas Messer, directed by Michael Lilly, and starring Jim Arrendell as Esley. In mid-2015, Parkway Playhouse revived the stage production of Esley with a new cast of actors, but still under the direction of Michael Lilly. Playwright Jeff Douglas Messer is currently working on a screenplay and novel based on the stage script.

In 2008, the Traditional Voices Group, a North Carolina organization with a mission partly to preserve and promote the memory of Lesley Riddle, began annual RiddleFest Concerts in Burnsville, North Carolina.