Born in Rosine Kentucky, he was the youngest of eight children. Orphaned at age 11 he was raised by his uncle, fiddler Pendleton Vandiver. Learning the fiddle from his mother and taught further by his uncle, at an early age he began playing dances with uncle and brothers. Besides his uncle (whom he immortalized in the song "Unlce Pen") his musical inspiration was Arnold Schultz, a black guitarist from whom he learned the blues. By the early 1930s he and his brother Charlie had a successful duo,...
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