Lee Stripling:
Keeper of the toe-tapping tradition

Lee Stripling
performing in 2006.

From the red clay of Alabama to the soggy bottom of the Pacific Northwest, Lee Stripling has sparked the grumpy to smile and the lazy to get up and dance since he took up the fiddle seriously again in his 70s. Still vibrant at 86, Lee plays old-time fiddle with the driving sound that was the hallmark of his father, Charlie Stripling, who sold more records than any other Alabama fiddler.

A new generation has fallen for Lee’s cheerful tunes that harken to what was supposed to be his prime – except that his prime keeps going. Playing tunes from the Great Depression, the war years and the silky harmony of cowboy songs from Bob Wills and the Sons of the Pioneers, Lee and his bands are available for dances, parties, retirement homes, street fairs and much more.

Documentary to preview at Fiddle Tunes

The Library of Congress took note of Lee’s remarkable comeback and helped fund the documentary “The Stripling Brothers: A Fiddling Legacy,” which will be completed later this year. A 30-minute version will preview at 4:30 p.m. July 3 at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend. Seattle filmmaker Jeri Vaughn followed Lee across the country, documenting one of the last great hurrahs of old-time Alabama fiddle and the buoyant response of younger musicians.

Woke without missing a beat

The hard-working son
of a sharecropper, Lee would fall asleep with his legs dangling off the chair at barn dances when he was 9 or 10, prompting his famed Alabama father, Charlie Stripling, to tap him awake with the fiddle bow. Legend has it Lee didn't miss a beat.