Charlie Cline

Charles "Charlie" Cline (born June 6, 1931 Baisden, West Virginia - died November 19, 2004),^[1] was an American bluegrass fiddler and multi-instrumentalist, known for being the sideman of several legendary bluegrass groups from the 1950s and well into the 1980s.

Cline learned to play the fiddle properly from Fiddlin' Arthur Smith about 1940. In the late 1940s, Cline became a member of the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, a radio band formed in 1937 and based in Bluefield, West Virginia, consisting of his brothers, Curly Ray Cline and Ned Cline, his cousin Ezra Cline, and Larry Richardson. Banjo player Richardson had been offered a job with Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in the early 1950s, and was instrumental in bringing Charlie Cline into the group. Cline recorded 32 songs with the Bluegrass Boys between 1952 and 1955.^[2] In the following years, he continued to perform with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, The Stanley Brothers, The Osborne Brothers and Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys. In 1986, he appeared with the Warrior River Boys. Cline died in 2004 at Shadescrest Healthcare Center in Jasper, Alabama.

References