We wouldn’t have the banjo
without Black musicians.
We wouldn’t have any Carters
without Lesley Riddle.
Industry called this shared music
‘race records’ and ‘hillbilly music’
til they found a way to whiten,
to broaden, to erase the real shapes.
Though the African diaspora
is as much a part of country
as it is to America, this legacy
was swept under the rug–
accomplishments uncredited
and unappreciated 
unless you were a scholar
or met a man who knew,
who’d lived his life loving something–
the old songs and new–a man who shared
his country love with those he met–
a man who deserved his country
music to love him openly back.