We are very proud of our homecoming singing, Singing in Hominy Valley, that started in 1981. Hominy Valley is just west of Asheville, North Carolina, on Highway 151. We advertise all year long to our friends, inviting them to come to visit the beautiful mountains, and it doesn’t take much to get people into these western North Carolina mountains, especially if they like gospel music, too. We have groups from all over the country come to sing with us, usually about a week around the Fourth of July. We also have two weekends of singing in the fall at Hominy Valley in Candler, North Carolina. Candler is our home, and it’s easy to get people to come see our beautiful fall colors during the second and third weekends in October.
We average traveling twelve days a month. We have done that for thirty years now on a regular basis. I don’t even know how many states we have performed in, really, just all over. We are thankful that people everywhere enjoy our kind of music. I feel like it is a ministry for Christ, or I wouldn’t be doing it. He is very, very precious to me. I can’t imagine life without Him. If it wasn’t for Him, then I wouldn’t have been able to stay on the road for thirty-seven years.
It’s a little bit embarrassing for me to talk about things like the awards we have won. Last year at the Bluegrass Awards at the National Quartet Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, Mike got Musician of the Year, and we got Group of the Year. Jeff got Top Vocalist, and Reagan got Songwriter, and we have been nominated several times for Band of the Year. They inducted us into the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame a couple of years ago. In September of 2010, we were blessed to be awarded the Norcross-Templeton Award at the NQC. I guess what I am as proud of as anything is that we have been consistent. The Lord has blessed us to have songs in the top-forty charts for the past twenty-five years, and that’s in the southern gospel music field.
We sing at more southern gospel venues probably than anything else. We sing with all the southern gospel groups, and we do a few bluegrass festivals a year—nothing like as many bluegrass as we do southern gospel, though. We probably sing at one church and two other venues per weekend, so about one in three times in a church. Still, that’s my favorite way to sing, like we are here tonight, in a church. We go, and they feed us a wonderful meal, treat us unbelievably well, take good care of us; we sing, and then when we are done, around nine o’clock, we can go home. God has blessed us with precious friends all over the country that makes this possible.
I would like for young people today to know that if there wasn’t even a hereafter, which I absolutely believe there is, God has proven Himself to me many times that He is real. He has been such a very present help in so many times of need for me. He’s just a precious friend that nothing’s ever gotten too big for. He changed my world; you’d just had to know me before. Christ is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. He has blessed me in so many ways. One example of this was how I prayed God would send me the girl He had for me to marry. He showed me my wife was the one. I spent a day in the mountains praying. When we first started singing, I started praying that God would send me a good, godly woman that I could live with. I knew He loved me; I knew I loved Him; I knew He knew the future; and I knew that I didn’t. So why not consider Him, if He knows the future, in something as important as picking a mate? I went to the mountains and said, “God, I need your help; show me if she’s the one.” I’ve never had a more heavenly day in my life. I believe He was pleased that I wanted to consider Him in this big decision. He said, “Consider Me in all your ways.” I poured my heart out to God, asking if she was the one, and He just blessed it. Consider Him in all your decisions; He knows the future. That would be the advice that I’d give a young person, but most importantly, give your heart to the Lord while you’re young. When you’re old it will get hard and change will be harder for you then, but when you’re young and tender, that’s the time to trust the Lord, and He’ll bless your whole life. I started right, tried to live right, and I’m more determined to finish right the older I get. We’ve made so many precious friends around the country singing, and I would so hate to let them down, too.
If I had my life to live over, I would pick the same path again, without a shadow of any doubt! I don’t see how people make it without the Lord, especially in hard times. A year ago I found out that my eldest daughter had breast cancer; my mother had breast cancer at forty-nine; my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer at forty-nine, and my daughter at twenty-nine. It’s just a privilege to have Him to turn to all the time, in good times and bad.
A lot of people ask my advice on how to succeed in the world of gospel music. I tell them three things: One, be a little bit different; two, have original music; and three, have the touch of God on your singing. Especially, have the touch of God! Praise Him for being so good to me!
Reagan Riddle
My name is Reagan Glenn Riddle. I was twenty-seven when The Primitive Quartet started singing, thirty-seven years ago; you do the math [laughs]. I’ll be sixty-four on June 30 [2010], but I don’t feel it most of the time. For the first six years of my life, we lived on Foster Creek in the Big Laurel section of Madison County, North Carolina. My first school was the Foster Creek School, a two-room school with no indoor plumbing. At age six, we moved to Candler to be closer to my dad’s work. At age fourteen, Dad bought me a brand-new Gibson factory left-handed guitar. I’ll never forget how thrilled I was with it! As I look back and reflect on the monthly singings that my parents took me to, I realize God was preparing me for what He had in store.
I have been blessed with health all my life. I was raised in church, and that’s where my love for music comes from. I used to sing with Mom and Dad a little. We attended Missionary Baptist Church, and that is where I still go today. I have two daughters and six grandchildren. My youngest daughter is married to Randy Fox, a member of our group, and they have two children. My older daughter is married to the pastor of one of the best churches in our county, North Asheville Baptist. They have three biological children and one adopted from Kazakhstan. The song “I’m No Longer an Orphan” that The Primitive Quartet sings is the little girl that story is about. She was eleven years old when they brought her to America, and she is now nineteen. She loves her Poppy, and I love her, too. Both my girls are involved in music. Tracey, my older daughter, sings in church all the time, and Tammy, Randy’s wife, is a good singer and can play the piano and upright bass.
We started singing in 1973. It was just an accident. We went on a fishing trip and picked a little bit and sung two or three songs. Today, we are accepted in southern gospel music and at the National Quartet Convention, but our style of music is the mountain style. We sing the shape-note style of music and play the bluegrass instruments—guitars, mandolins, and fiddles. Shape-note music is a very elementary form of music. You remember learning the do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do in school? They just put a shape to those notes. In about three months anybody can learn the shape-note-style music. A lot of churches years ago had the shape-note-music schools, and in two weeks, they could about have everybody singing their part. I mean, it just works beautifully.
I play the guitar by ear, and I am left-handed. Believe it or not, I play cello right-handed. That was kind of a challenge. I’ve always played the left-handed guitar. I just turned the strings around when I was younger and before Dad bought my new Gibson in 1960. That was the first left-handed guitar I ever had. I was like the lightnin’ bug that backed into a fan; I was delighted [laughs].
I’ve written a lot of songs over the years. I usually write about two or three, sometimes four or five for each new project. We get a lot of songs in the mail, so it just depends on whether we are able to use them. We got some songs recently from Texas. I’d written four or five for the recording we just made, but I liked the songs we got in more than the ones I’d written, so we recorded them.
We just had our new bus special-built for our group of six people. It has nine bunks. We have had four buses since we’ve been singing. We started with a van and a trailer just like everyb
ody else. I love it. The joy of singing is still in it for me, and I hope that shines through when we sing. I love the Lord, and I just appreciate the privilege of doing it, and it is a privilege. People hear you on the radio and perhaps see you on television and come to see you just out of curiosity one time, but if nothing touches their heart, you’ll never see them again. If something touches the inner man, they’ll want that again. That is the Lord’s part. This tells me that we can do nothing within ourselves.
I don’t regret a mile that I’ve traveled for the Lord; however, my daughters were on the homecoming court just about every year in high school. I guess if I had it to do over, I wouldn’t have missed those homecoming games like I did. We were always gone. Those were special events for my daughters and if I had it to do over again, I might make a change or two like that, but that is all. For some reason my family really wants to support us and travel with us when we go on that cruise every year [laughs].
If I had any advice for young people today, it would be about serving others; what you give away is the only thing you’re going to take away, just serving and being a help to others. I believe that’s the most important thing that we can do in this life, just being an encouragement to others. That’s what this music is all about—just spreading sunshine.
Mike Riddle
My name is Michael Dean Riddle. I was born on May 1, 1957, and live in Candler, North Carolina, which is in the city limits of Asheville. I have three brothers and one sister. We were born about five years apart. All the brothers play music or sing except our youngest brother, Darren. Reagan is the oldest, then my sister, Geneva, then Larry, me, and Darren.
The first instrument I learned to play was the bass guitar. I played the bass with a group in Haywood County called the Happy Travelers when I was thirteen years old. They actually picked me up to go practice and sing ’cause I was too young to drive. I played with them about a year and a half. They just played locally around here in four or five counties: Macon, Haywood, Buncombe, and Jackson. Then I played with the Seeker’s Quartet from Asheville. When I was sixteen I played bass guitar for one summer at Fontana Village Resort. They had a bluegrass group called the Fontana Ramblers. We played five nights a week from April through October. Doyle Barker played lead guitar, and Vance Trull played fiddle. These guys were very kind to me and taught me a lot about music.
Dad had an old Silvertone guitar and later bought a Gibson B-25 guitar. I would come in from school and play the guitar for two or three hours every day after school. I never did play sports in school; I played the guitar all the time. I had three albums that I practiced with to help me learn to play. They were by The Inspirations, Conway Twitty, and the Peace Maker’s Quartet from Asheville. I thought I would never learn to play lead guitar. I actually laid it down for about six months and kinda gave up on it. Then it was like God revealed to me the pattern of how the scale of music works, even though I play by ear. So I picked it back up, and it all fell into place. Before that, I could play rhythm and a few runs, but I never could really learn where to place licks in behind singing, where it fit at the right spots and didn’t take away from the singing. I’m thankful to God for that ’cause I was just about to give up. I was probably about fourteen or fifteen when I really started catching on and played lead guitar. I’m fifty-three now, and I’m still learning. Of course, I forget more than I learn [laughs].
I’ve never moved from the farm where I’ve always lived. I met and married my wife, Diane Hicks Riddle, who was raised in the Biltmore area of Asheville. We don’t have any kids of our own, but we’ve always enjoyed our nieces and nephews. My dad gave us all lots on the farm to build on, and my family has always been there close by.
Besides lead guitar, I play bass guitar and the mandolin some. I had a steel guitar one time, but I never did get it mastered. I’ve fooled with the Dobro and banjo but never really got good on them. I also play the organ and piano a little. There was a dear man, Lane Worley, who was with the Happy Travelers, that got me started on the piano. He showed me how to play the bass notes with your left hand, like you were playing a bass guitar, and then chord with your right hand. We didn’t have a piano at home, so when we would get to church early, I would practice. That’s how my playing got started. Lane passed away about four or five years ago. He was a great encouragement to me.
I started singing with The Primitives when Furman Wilson left the group to start pastoring a church. Furman sung with them for the first five years, from 1973 to 1978. They were singing locally at that time, maybe five or six counties, and would occasionally sing in East Tennessee. I had been playing off and on some with them. When Furman started pastoring full-time, I joined the group and started playing lead guitar and singing baritone. I have now been with the group for thirty-two years. Some of the dates we fill each year we have been doing annually for twenty-five years, like the Georgia Mountain Fair and our anniversary singing in Gainesville, Georgia, with our dear friend Hayne Tatum.
We have been truly blessed working for the Lord. We have been nominated for several awards. Working for the Lord is the biggest reward of all, but it is an honor to be recognized for your work. In years past the quartet has been nominated for Group of the Year and Band of the Year at the National Quartet Convention. We were fortunate to win Song of the Year with a couple of songs, “That Soldier Was Me” and “Walking in the Highway.” I’ve won Favorite Instrumentalist a couple of years in a row, 2008 and 2009, at the Front Porch Fellowship Bluegrass Gospel Awards. I was honored to be nominated, much less win it.
PLATE 75 The original Primitive Quartet in the 1970s: Reagan Riddle, Norman Wilson, Furman Wilson, and Larry Riddle
I think it was God’s will that everything has happened like it has. I know I have failed the Lord in many ways. If I could do things over, I would probably try to lend a helping hand more to people that are hurting and try to be an encouragement to them. I was saved at Maple Ridge Baptist Church when I was thirteen. The pastor was Claude Surrett. I started attending Maple Ridge when I was six months old, when my parents moved to Candler from Madison County. All the members of The Primitive Quartet attend Maple Ridge.
My advice for anyone is to accept Jesus as their Savior and live for the Lord. They will never regret it. It’s tougher now than when I was growing up. When I was a kid, there were so many folks, like my parents, who were just good, godly people. They set an example before young people. That upbringing doesn’t ever leave you. I never will forget it. A lot of those people who were role models for me are dead now. I think we need to be more Christlike, set better examples, and do our part to show the world that Jesus is real. It is my prayer and the prayers of The Primitive Quartet that God will use our music to draw people to Him and to touch and comfort people who are hurting and going through valleys.
Randy Fox
My name is Randy Dale Fox. I was born on June 26, 1962. I grew up in a little town in Indiana called Williamsburg. They were still taking baby pictures in black and white then. As a child I can remember we didn’t have air-conditioning, but I don’t remember missing it too bad. We could get about three channels on the television, and we changed those channels with a pair of pliers. Life seemed to be at a slower pace back then. I went to church, went to school, played baseball, and went hunting and fishing with my dad. Mom was, and still is, a great cook, so we had plenty of good food to eat. I cherish my youth most because my parents took me to church and taught me about Jesus.
My dad was part of a quartet for twenty-six years, so gospel music has always been a big part of my life. After I was saved at the age of twelve years old, I developed a love for the music. My dad was in the process of trading guitars and noticed I was starting to learn how to play. He told me if I would learn how to play and use that talent for the Lord, he would give me his old guitar, which was a 1962 D-18 Martin. Long story short, I got the guitar, and just recently I told my thirteen-year-old son the same thing my dad told me, and I passed it on to him. About that time, Dad’s gro
up had slowed down, so we started a group called the Gospel Fishermen. We traveled and sang together for about five years. At that time I had moved on to playing the mandolin. I can play a little bit on the banjo, but I currently play upright bass with The Primitive Quartet. I don’t formally read music, but I can follow shape notes a little. I have written a few songs down through the years.
PLATE 76 Randy Fox with his wife, Tammy, and children, Cessali and Carson, taken on the Singing at Sea cruise
I still enjoy the traveling our group does. God has kept the joy in that and also the fact that our schedule does not keep us gone all the time. We average three days a week on the road, and we are home most Sundays, which allows us to be active in our home church. Our fellowship on the bus is great, and I think that shows when we perform onstage.
My favorite place to sing in general would be smaller churches. That’s not to say you can’t have great services in other venues because I’ve also felt His presence while singing on a street downtown. Our homecoming singing is always special, and it’s at Hominy Valley in Candler. I like it because it’s at home and that ground has been dedicated to God for the purpose of praising God in song.
The recognition we have received has been great, but it’s something I never really think about much. We received the Song of the Year on a song I sang lead on, “Walking in the Highway,” a few years ago from the radio show Front Porch Fellowship and have won other awards from them also, including male vocalist, Jeff Tolbert; musician, Jeff and Mike Riddle; as well as Group of the Year. We were also honored to be inducted into the Blue Ridge [Music] Hall of Fame last year.
PLATE 77 Randy playing with Doc Watson when they were being inducted into the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame in June 2009
The Foxfire 45th Anniversary Book Page 31