Ezra Cline (1907 - 1984) was an American bluegrass bassist. 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, Curl ...

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

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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 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 largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. He hired Melvin and Ray Goins, following the departure of Charlie Cline (who went to work for

Bill Monroe William Smith "Bill" 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 take ...

) and Paul Williams (who went to work for Jimmy Martin), and moved back to

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

to perform on a new station, WLSI 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