Lee Stripling, the father of Times staff reporter Sherry Stripling, strummed his first tunes when he was only 8. He learned the old-time fiddle tradition from his father. But it wasn't until much later in life that the 79-year-old son of an Alabama sharecropper found a rebirth in the rhythyms of Western swing. Here, he takes time out from his fiddle-playing to sing a song.

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