Almeda Riddle

Who was Almeda Riddle?

Almeda Riddle was an American folk singer. Born and raised in Cleburne County, Arkansas, she learned music from her father, a fiddler and a teacher of shape note singing. She collected and sang traditional ballads throughout her life, usually unaccompanied. Introduced to a wider public by folklorist John Quincy Wolf and musicologist Alan Lomax, Riddle recorded extensively, and claimed to be able to perform over 500 songs. She was often known as Granny Riddle.

In October 1959, on Wolf's recommendation, Lomax and Shirley Collins recorded Riddle at her home in Heber Springs in The Ozarks. The 23 songs reflected Lomax's interest in traditional ballads and songs for children. Collins recalls:

She was a singer of such composure and quiet intensity, that you were compelled to listen. .... There was such clarity in her style, and she had that rare and admirable quality of serving the songs, rather tham the songs serving her.

Children's songs from this session were issued on "American Folk Songs For Children" in the Atlantic Records' "Southern Folk Heritage" series of LPs and was reissued as the Atlantic records box set "Southern Folk Heritage".