Cliff Hess
Musician
Best known for
Songwriter
Cliff Hess was an early-twentieth-century American songwriter who wrote “Blue Ridge (Mountain) Blues” in 1924 under the pseudonym Roy B. Carson. Introduced by George Reneau that same year, the song became a fixture of early commercial country and string-band repertoires and was later carried into the modern bluegrass and folk-revival canon by Bill Clifton, John Fogerty’s Blue Ridge Rangers, and many others.
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- Wrote “Blue Ridge Blues,” later commonly titled “Blue Ridge Mountain Blues,” in 1924; registered the song under the pen name Roy B. Carson.
- George Reneau cut the first commercial recording of the song in 1924.
- The song has been recorded by Henry Whitter, Bill Clifton and the Dixie Mountain Boys, John Fogerty’s Blue Ridge Rangers, and many others, and remains a fixture of the bluegrass and old-time canon.
