Ezra Cline (1907 - 1984) was an American bluegrass

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

. Cline was born on 13 January 1907 at Glbert Creek, West Virginia. He began performing locally with his cousins Ireland "Lazy Ned" Cline and Ray "Curly Ray" Cline, along with local guitarist Zeke Stepp, as the

Lonesome Pine Fiddlers The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers (1938–1966) were an early bluegrass band. Throughout their formations, they included notable "first generation" bluegrass musicians such as Ezra Cline, Bobby Osborne, Paul Williams, Melvin Goins, Charlie Cline, C ...

in Gilbert Creek, WV. The three cousins worked in the coal mines during the week and played music on the weekends until 1938, when they left Mingo County, WV for Bluefield, WV to perform on

WHIS WHIS (1440 AM) is a talk-formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Bluefield, West Virginia, serving Bluefield in West Virginia and Bluefield in Virginia. WHIS is owned and operated by Charles Spencer and Rick Lambert, through licensee ...

radio. Cline was the oldest of 15 children, and when their father died at 57, he was left to care for his younger siblings. Ned Cline was killed in World War II, and was replaced by

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 ...

in 1947. In November 1953, Cline and the

were performing on the WJR Big Barn Frolic. During the week, he worked at the Hudson plant in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. He hired Melvin and Ray Goins, following the departure of

(who went to work for

Bill Monroe William Smith Monroe ( ; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the " Father of Bluegrass". The genre takes its n ...

) and Paul Williams (who went to work for

Jimmy Martin James Henry Martin (August 10, 1927 – May 14, 2005) was an American bluegrass singer and musician, known as the "King of Bluegrass". Early years Martin was born in Sneedville, Tennessee, United States, and was raised in the hard farming l ...

), and moved back to

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

to perform on a new station,

WLSI WLSI (900 AM broadcasting, AM) is a radio station broadcasting a contemporary Christian radio format, format. Licensed to Pikeville, Kentucky, United States, the station is currently owned by licensee Mountain Top Media LLC; Cindy May Johnson Ma ...

in Pikeville. Cline died 11 July 1984.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cline, Ezra 1907 births 1984 deaths Bluegrass musicians from Kentucky American bluegrass guitarists American male guitarists 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Kentucky Country musicians from Kentucky 20th-century American male musicians Musicians from Bluefield, West Virginia People from Mingo County, West Virginia