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Age and ill health wrap Charlie Acuff in a firm embrace, clouding his eyes and mind.

Wheeled into his room at Blount Memorial Hospital's Morningview Village, those clouds lift when he sees his oldest son, Boyd, and his long-time bass player, Juanita Johnson. They sharpen even further when he's told that The Daily Times wants to write about his 90th birthday celebration, scheduled for this weekend at Music Row of Maryville, and he asks about his old friend and long-time Daily Times Editor, Dean Stone.

But the thing that brings a smile to his face is something innocuous, a little detail most might miss but one that Acuff seizes upon. He grins and lifts his hand with effort, worn fingers pointing.

"You're left-handed!" he exclaims, clearly tickled to see a fellow southpaw. It registers, no doubt, because Acuff has been known all his life as a left-handed fiddle player, learning from his grandfather as a young man and perfecting the craft over a lifetime of making music.

"His grandfather taught Charlie to play the right-handed fiddle left-handed," his son says. "One of the reasons his style was so unique is that songs a lot of people had trouble with were easy for him."

These days, the physical act of playing is difficult on him. His health will most likely prevent him from partaking in Saturday's celebration at Music Row of Maryville, and no doubt he'll be missed. But his life -- and more importantly, his contribution to the musical legacy of East Tennessee -- will be celebrated regardless. On the bill will be a number of musicians, both professional players and front-porch pickers, who have played with Charlie or owe a debt to his inspiration.

It's a bittersweet event for Boyd Acuff, who speaks for his ailing father with love, respect and regret -- because it's an unspoken understanding that the elder Acuff has more yesterdays than tomorrows. Which makes his birthday party even more important, whether he's there in person or in spirit.

"If you judge him by money or financial success, he was a failure -- but if you look at how good of a fiddle player he was, the friends he had and all of the places he played, then he was a very successful man," Boyd Acuff says. "What he loved more than anything was playing with people. He was just as happy playing in the house as he was someplace like the World's Fair. And he never forgot where he came from."

Roy's second cousin

Charlie Acuff was born in Union County, the same birthplace of his famous second cousin -- country music legend Roy Acuff. The year was 1919, and young Charlie suffered from chronic allergies that made growing up in the country hard on him, his son relates.

Charlie's father, Evart, built fiddles, and his grandfather, Charlie Boyd Acuff, was himself a fiddle player.

As a child, young Charlie moved in with his grandparents, who lived in Knoxville's Fountain City community; city living agreed with his frail constitution, and as he grew older, his grandfather decided to teach him a skill.

"When my dad was 12, his grandfather said, 'It's time for you to learn to play the fiddle,' and my dad said, 'I'm left-handed. I can't learn,'" Boyd says. "His grandfather said, 'We'll just see about that,' and that's something my dad has told a lot over the years. He liked telling that story, and he always told that part -- 'We'll just see about that.'"

With infinite patience and firm guidance, Charlie Boyd Acuff taught his grandson to perfect his craft. "You just about got it -- play it again," and "You done pretty good -- play it again" became mantras that the young fiddler would use in later years, teaching others the craft. Eventually, he would learn more than 200 tunes from his grandfather, songs he would perform by heart for the rest of his life.

'Old Time music'

By 1938, Charlie Acuff and his brother, Gayle, had thrown in their lot with hillbilly musician Esco Hankins. Living back in Union County, the brothers had the backing instrumentation for which Hankins was looking; Hankins had the transportation the two brothers needed to ply their trade on the road.

They began making daily trips to Knoxville to perform on WROL-AM, traveling an hour and a half over backroads from Maynardville and returning to their hometown to go back to school. Their reputations grew around East Tennessee, and the brothers soon found themselves in demand at square dances, church socials and other functions in which a fast fiddle gave people an excuse to dance.

"They call it Old Time music today, but it was really popular music of the common man from the 1700s to the early 1900s," Boyd Acuff says. "They played all around East Tennessee and Kentucky."

Also in 1938, Acuff's cousin Roy became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Although there was a 16-year age difference between the two men, the young Acuff looked up to his more famous kin, and the man who would become known as the "King of Country Music" gave young Charlie a few words of advice.

"He went to see Roy in Nashville, and Roy told him how hard it was (in the music business)," Boyd Acuff says.

Shortly thereafter, however, history intervened -- World War II began, but Acuff was turned down for the draft because of back problems. At the time, ALCOA was hiring just about any male who wasn't fighting overseas, and so Acuff moved to Blount County, where he lives to this day, and got a job at the aluminum plant.

His days were spent on the line, but his nights belonged to music. With a fiddle made by his father in 1941 -- which he still plays today -- Charlie Acuff established himself as a showman and musician of reputable skill.

"He lived to play the fiddle, and he played all the time," Boyd Acuff says. "The thing about the fiddle is that it's the only instrument -- well, that and the banjo -- that you can dance to. The guitar is fine, but for the breakdown, square dancers wanted to hear that fiddle, and my dad could sure play it for them."

Johnson comes aboard

For a couple of decades, during the 1960s and '70s, Acuff stepped away from playing professionally, performing instead at family gatherings and in intimate settings with close friends. With the 1982 World's Fair, however, East Tennessee and its unique culture were under the world's spotlight, and Acuff's skills were in demand.

He performed regularly at the fair with John Rice Irwin, who would found and run the Museum of Appalachia in Norris; that same year, he met Johnson for the first time, performing at her mother's birthday party.

"He was a pretty good fiddle player," Johnson recalls. "I had played with others, but none of them were as smooth as Charlie."

Acuff brought Johnson on board as his bass player, and together they performed at a number of memorable events -- Opryland, the Uncle Dave Macon Days festival (Acuff was the grand marshal of the parade) and on Garrison Keillor's acclaimed radio program "A Prairie Home Companion."

In 2005, he received a Tennessee Governor's Award in the Arts at a ceremony that included Memphis soul legend Isaac Hayes.

"I don't care who we played in front of, a crowd never bothered him," Johnson says. "He just played what he knew."

A family man -- he was married for 57 years to the late Dorothy Wallace Acuff and fathered three sons -- Boyd, Gordon and the late Randall Acuff. He has six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, and countless "foster" children by whom he's related through music, many of whom will be on hand Saturday to pay tribute to him.

"I'm glad he's being remembered," Boyd Acuff says. "All you learn in history is about wars and what different presidents did. Being around my dad and his friends, you get a picture of how hard life really was. And their music takes us all back to our roots."