His younger brother Ira bought a guitar to accompany him, and together the duo began to win local small-town fiddling competitions.
Charlie Stripling married in 1919, settling in the town of Kennedy, and as a tenant farmer welcomed the cash income from winning competitions.
Charlie Stripling began composing his own syncopated tunes or "ragtime breakdowns", often based on current pop songs, playing them at square dances in mining towns and elsewhere.
Though the Striplings may have asserted a mostly regional influence, the number of recordings they made -- on both sides of the Depression -- and the virtuosity of the playing attest to their stature as performers.
After his sons left during World War II, Charlie Stripling formed a band that played for large dances in the region.