Charlie Cline & The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers - Sunset Is Coming

(Old Homestead OHS-70037) 1983

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Charlie's fourth and final release on Old Homestead is an under-rated Gospel album with all of the tracks written by him, except for the title cut which is credited to label owner John Morris.

There's no indication on the artwork as to when the LP was recorded or who the musicians were, other than saying it was recorded in Hendersonville, Tennesee and engineered by 'Gordon Reed'. As the Strictly Cline was recorded at Reid Enterprise Sound Studio in the same city, it's reasonable to assume that "Sunset Is Coming" was also recorded at the same studio.

I'm guessing that the guitarist on the LP is Stan 'The Fox' Burns, please get in touch if you can confirm or correct this!

Most tracks have layered multi-harmony vocals including bass, with Charlie's accomplished mandolin & fiddle work weaving around the singing. As usual, Chuck Carpenter's banjo playing is also inventive, with great breaks on Tell Out The Story, I Believe In God, and In His Likeness. Sunset Is Coming also features a brief lead guitar break.

Lee Cline provides lead vocals on In His Likeness and Master Of The Sea, with Charlie (and possibly some of the other Lonesome Fiddlers) taking lead on the other songs.

The album only has one instrumental, which is also one of the stand-out cuts. Shadows is built around a repeated descending chord sequence with superb mandolin & banjo plus a scintillating multi-fiddle cascade.

The melody on He Saved My Soul is similar in parts to Two Coats and has a lovely mandolin break. I Am The Great I Am also takes some of it's melody from another well known track... that escapes me at the moment!

• Charlie Cline: fiddle, mandolin
• Lee Cline: bass
• Chuck Carpenter: banjo, dobro
• Stan 'The Fox' Burns ??: guitar

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