The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show - Prater's Creek Gazette

Curly Ray Cline

Many fiddle players today are technically brilliant, possessing jaw-dropping chops, but shun the old time, hoedown style of fiddling. They can dart in and out of tunes, playing this or that fancy lick, but they don’t have any drive. I like a fiddle player who hits you right between the eyes and gets your feet to moving. Curly Ray Cline was just such a fiddler.

Curly Ray played in the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers with his brother-in-law/ cousin Ezra and his brother Charlie This band made many great records. He did a few shows with The Stanley Brothers and then, after Carter’s death, Ralph hired him on full time with The Clinch Mountain Boys. He played with Ralph up until his retirement in the early 1990’s.

Curly Ray Cline was a dynamo on stage, not only with his fiddling, but also with his comedy. Some nights he threatened to steal the show and Ralph loved it. Every night when Stanley would introduce him, he’d say “He’s been with me for__ years and been late once, and drunk on thirteen!” Curly Ray had a big pumpkin head, which just made him look even cooler up there sawing away.

I once saw him with The Clinch Mountain Boys in Myrtle Beach, SC at the annual Thanksgiving weekend festival, where he was the only fiddle player in any band that day. Well, he just set that auditorium on fire in each of their sets. Even all the snowbird Yankees in the audience were going crazy over Curly Ray.

I’ve seen the word “primitive” used more than once to describe his fiddle playing. The heck with that! Curly Ray’s fiddle playing could make you weep on the slow songs and your feet could not stop dancing when he played a good old fiddle number. I love to show people his appearance in the bluegrass documentary movie “High Lonesome” where he plays “Sourwood Mountain”.

I sat down with him at their record table one fall afternoon down in Lavonia, GA where he and The Clinch Mountain Boys were performing a festival. I was happy just to say “hello” to him and he ended up talking to me for three hours until he had to go back on stage. The last time I saw him perform was up at Raymond Fairchild’s place up in Cherokee, NC and Curly Ray looked bad and had to lean against the wall between every song. But he still played great!! If I had never seen what he looked like, he would still have been one of greatest fiddle players I have ever seen. But, seeing him up there with that fiddle tucked under the chin of that giant head, grinning that Curly Ray grin…it was as good as music could get.

DVD Review: Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper

Live 1973: The Billon Dollar Babies Tour

DVD Review: Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper Photo Finally after all these years, when the movie played theaters in 1974, the original cut of this legendary movie is out. Before this, all you could get was the version where it had old movie clips of Mae West, W.C. Fields, The Marx Brothers, etc. between songs. I never even knew that Alice and the band (Dennis Dunaway-bass, Michael Bruce-guitar/keyboards, Neal Smith-drums, and Glenn Buxton-lead guitar) had actually acted in a story line that runs between songs. Well, I saw it and thank goodness for the "concert only" feature on the DVD’s menu! Except for the very beginning where Alice and the band perform “Lady is a Tramp” the acting and story are pretty stupid.

But the concert is still the greatest rock concert ever staged! When I was in the eighth grade, the band came to Clemson University’s Littlejohn Coliseum. I had not ever been to a rock concert and Alice was my favorite. I begged by daddy to let me go, but he wouldn’t let me since I was only 13 years old at the time. The morning after the concert, I came to the breakfast table and my daddy had the front page of The Greenville News laid out for me to see. There on the front page was a huge article on the concert. The article talked about how the coliseum had hosted many rock concerts but never one with this much controversy and anticipation. Alice’s light show was so far ahead of its time that the university had to use extra generators for the first time. This light show is featured on the song “My Stars” in the movie. The newspaper also mentioned how the cops were ready to arrest Alice for any indecent behavior and the Humane Society was on hand to arrest him if he harmed any animals (remember the rumors that Alice killed chickens and cut up little kittens on stage?!)

You watch this concert now and you wonder what all of the hubbub was about. Of course, we have seen 30 years of rock concerts trying to top this since 1973. But it was the greatest show ever staged. From the opening song, “Hello Hooray”, through Alice’s decapitation, and the encores of “School’s Out” and “Under My Wheels” this show still stands up. Give the Alice Cooper fan in your life the best Christmas present you can give him or her, and let Santa bring this DVD.

Edward (Dempsey) Young Jr. 1954 - 2006

Edward Dempsey Young Jr photo Edward (Dempsey) Young, Jr., 52, of Boones Mill, passed away on Sunday December 10, 2006 at his home. Born July 1, 1954, he was preceded in death by his parents, Edward (Ned) and Marie Young; and an uncle, Monte Belcher. Surviving to cherish his memory are his wife, Lynette Gibson Young and children, Stephanie and Demetra Young, of the home and Christopher Young who is serving in the United States Air Force, stationed in Qatar. Also surviving are brothers, Steve (Rhonda) Young, Randy (Kathy) Young and Scott (Deanna) Young, all of Wirtz; a number of nieces and nephews; special in-laws, Betty and Dee Walters of Callaway and Lewis and Louise Gibson of Boones Mill; aunts and uncles, Louise Berger of Union Hall, Joyce (Charlie) Woods of Martinsville, Sterling (Pat) Belcher of Rocky Mount, Ann Hawthorne of Dundas, Frances Maddux, James F. Young and Margaret Ogburn, all of Wakefield; special cousins, Terry and Pam McDaniel of Brodnax and very special friends, Allen and Debbie Mills, Scottie Sparks and Ronald Smith. Dempsey along with Allen Mills was an original member of the Lost and Found Bluegrass Band performing professionally for over 33 years. He was a world renowned mandolin player known for his creative style and tone. Dempsey and Allen were inducted into the Virginia Folk Music Hall of Fame in 2005. Funeral services will be conducted from the chapel of Lynch Funeral Home on Thursday, December 14, 2006 at 1 p.m. With the Rev. Rick Poland officiating. Interment to follow in the Pigg River Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery. The family will have fellowship time at Piedmont Presbyterian Church following the service. The family will receive friends on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 from 6 to 9 p.m. At the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations be made to the Dempsey Young Memorial Fund, c/O Franklin Community Bank, 400 Old Franklin Turnpike, Suite 100, Rocky Mount, Va. 24151. Arrangements by Lynch Funeral Home, Rocky Mount, Va.