Charles Nelson Osborne (December 26, 1890 – May 27, 1992), affectionately known as "Uncle Charlie,"[1] was a musician in the Appalachian Mountains of southwest Virginia. He was born in what is now known as Cowan Osborne Hollow, named for his father, in Copper Creek, Virginia. He was regionally famous from the time he was about 15 until his death at age 101 in 1992.
Charlie had a unique style of playing the fiddle with his left hand, on a right-handed fiddle. He and his brother, Emmett Osborne, played on WOPI radio station in Bristol, Tennessee, from the early 1920s until the early 1930s. They were contemporaries of country music founders Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, and occasionally gave advice to Tennessee Ernie Ford on his music.