Clinch Mountain Echo

Curly Ray, Charley and Timmy Cline - Together Again At Their Best

(River Track Studios RTS-1341) c1990


Together Again At Their Best
Cover

Average Album Rating: 3.5
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I'm not sure when this was recorded... or who plays what. Curly is obviously on fiddle, and Timmy Cline is (probably) on bass... It sounds like Charlie is on fiddle too, and the banjo sounds like Ralph and the guitar like Junior, but I could be wrong.

It's a shame this was only released on cassette, and it is about as rare as Hens Teeth...

Sow Hog is a spirited re-working of Boar Hog, much more in keeping with Curly's energetic live performances than the 1980 Boar Hog studio version. This version has different amusing lyrics, and Curly / Charlie make great farmyard/animal noises over the top... Curly calls out something like "Pick 'em Mousey" and Charlie shouts out "Play it Ralph" before the banjo break.

Similarly When They Cut Down The Old Pine Tree and Whose Gonna Mow My Grass virtually crackle with energy... then there's the sweet melodic double fiddle work on a version of Buckwheat (here titled Buckwheat Breakdown), The Waltz You Saved For Me and Over The Waves[1].

Boil Them Cabbage Down also has clawhammer banjo, and vocals by both Charlie and Curly.

It sounds like they were having a lot of fun, but with one eye on the recording studio's clock. Curly adlibs instructions and some tracks end abruptly - "Stop it when you want to, friends and neighbours".

When Curly and Charlie were working with The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, they also cut a version of Lost Girl in 1963, on the 'More Bluegrass' LP (Starday SLP-222). Curly also re-recorded in 1971 on They Cut Down The Old Pine Tree.

Track:
Title:
Side One:
(12:21)
1
Buckwheat Breakdown

Curly Ray Cline / R. Stanley
2
Boil Them Cabbage Down

P.D.
3
Over The Waves

Juventino Rosas
4
Sow Hog

Curly Ray Cline
5
Sweet Tater Rag

??
Side Two:
(13:04)
1
Who's Gonna Mow My Grass

Curly Ray Cline / Verdie Cline
2
Lost Girl

Curly Ray Cline
3
When They Cut Down The Old Pine Tree

Curly Ray Cline
4
The Waltz You Saved For Me

Wayne King / Emil Flindt / Gus Kahn
5
I'll Fly Away

Albert E. Brumley

 


[1] Some interesting history behind Over The Waves: http://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Over_the_Waves_%281%29