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Uncle Charlie OsborneBorn December 26th, 1890 in Castlewood, Virginia (now in Russell County, Virginia, but then in the now dissolved Fincastle County, Virginia), Charles N. Osborne, affectionately known as "Uncle Charlie" was a regionally known musician in the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia from the time he was about 15 until his death at age 101 in May, 1992. Charlie's unique left-handed fiddle playing made him famous through the south. He and his brother, Emmett Osborne, played on WOPI radio station in Bristol, Tennessee from the early 1920's until the early 1930's. They were contemporaries of country music founders Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. Uncle Charlie was blinded in his left eye at age 19 when he was shot in the head with a pistol that had been stolen from him. Beginning in the 1930's, he cut back his music and farmed a large farm near the Osborne Family Homeplace in Copper Creek, Virginia. In the mid-1970's after the death of his wife, Clara, Charlie began to focus more on his music. In 1985, in conjunction with East Tennessee State University, Junappal Records recorded Uncle Charlie's first album, "Relics And Treasures". The album contained over a dozen traditonal mountain songs, including "Ida Red", "Brown's Dream", and "Old Joe Clark". Uncle Charlie recorded two more albums with the label; his final was 1991's "One Hundred Years Farther On", which included the powerful and mournful mountain gospel song which Uncle Charlie called "As We Travel Through The Desert". In the 1980's, Governor Chuck Robb presented him with an award recognizing his contributions to Virginia life and culture. Uncle Charlie played numerous shows at the Carter Fold in Hiltons, Virginia, a theatre showcasing traditional music ran by Janette Carter, one of the daughters of the original Carter Family. On one occasion, Johnny Cash was Uncle Charlie's "opening act". Uncle Charlie walked three miles every day into town from his house in rural Tumbez, Virginia, until just weeks before his death. Charlie N. Osborne died in May 1992 of natural causes. His death left a void that is yet to be filled in the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
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