Curley Ray Cline
at home, Pikeville, Kentucky, 1974
Curley Ray, pictured here with his hunting dogs,
played fiddle for Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys for much
of his career. His style was simple and precise, a perfect match for
the Stanley "high lonesome" sound. Though he was a great
fiddler, it was Curley Ray's showmanship that was his biggest asset.
He was a livewire on stage and off, as he greeted fans and sold records
with an infectious grin. Curley Ray once turned down the Rolling Stones'
request to play fiddle on their song "Honky Tonk Woman,"
because "If people bought that record they wouldn't buy mine." |
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