Charlie Cline

Charles Cline (June 6, 1931 in Baisden, Mingo County, West Virginia - November 19, 2004), 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.

Biography Cline learned to play the fiddle properly from Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, who lived in his parents house around the year 1940. In the late 1940s, Cline became a member of the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, a radio band formed in 1937 based in Bluefield, West Virginia. The band consisted of his brothers, Curly Ray Cline and Ned Cline, his cousin Ezra Cline, and Larry Richardson.

Cline's Time with Monroe & Later Career Cline's Banjo player, Larry 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, playing every instrument but the mandolin.