Byron Berline (1944 to 2021) was the fiddler who carried Texas contest style into bluegrass and then into rock and roll. He won the Grand National Championship at Weiser in 1965 and 1970, joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1967, and co-wrote Gold Rush with Monroe. From Los Angeles he played on records by the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and the Eagles. His band California won IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year three years running.
Why Berline matters
Before Berline, bluegrass fiddle came from the Southeast. He grew up on the Kansas and Oklahoma contest circuit, where the Texas style ruled, with its long bow strokes, smooth variations, and swing. He brought that sound into Monroe’s band and then into the Los Angeles country rock scene. Every fiddler who plays a clean, long-bow break in a bluegrass band owes him something. And every fiddler who plays a session for a rock band is walking through a door he opened.
Life and career
Berline was born on July 6, 1944, in Caldwell, Kansas. He started fiddle at age five and grew up on the contest circuit. He won the Grand National Championship at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in 1965 at age 21. He recorded Pickin’ and Fiddlin’ with the Dillards that same year. He met Bill Monroe at the Newport Folk Festival and later took the fiddle job in the Blue Grass Boys. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1967 with a degree in physical education.
He joined Monroe in 1967 and recorded Gold Rush, which he co-wrote with Monroe, and Sally Goodin. The Army drafted him in September 1967, ending his run with Monroe after a few months. Discharged in 1969, he moved to Southern California and joined Dillard and Clark. He played on Country Honk for the Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed, recording his part outdoors on the street at Mick Jagger’s request. He won his second Grand National Championship in 1970.
In 1971 he co-founded Country Gazette with Roger Bush after Dillard and Clark broke up. He also played with the Flying Burrito Brothers and Stephen Stills’s Manassas. He left Country Gazette in 1975 and formed Byron Berline and Sundance, which released a debut album on MCA in 1976. From 1981 he worked as a trio with guitarist Dan Crary and banjo player John Hickman. That trio grew into the band California, which won IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year in 1992, 1993, and 1994.
Berline appeared in the films The Rose and Stay Hungry and played fiddle in a 1987 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In April 1995 he moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma, and opened the Double Stop Fiddle Shop. With Joe Hutchinson he founded the Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival in 1996. His 1995 album Fiddle and a Song earned a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. A fire destroyed the Double Stop Fiddle Shop in February 2019, and he rebuilt it across the street as the Double Stop Fiddle Shop and Music Hall. He published a memoir, A Fiddler’s Diary, with Jane Frost in 2013.
Berline had a stroke in the weeks before his death. He died of complications on July 10, 2021, in Oklahoma City, four days after his 77th birthday.
Playing style
Berline played Texas contest style: long, smooth bow strokes, few slurs across the beat, and a tone that stayed round at speed. Where a Southeastern bluegrass fiddler saws with short strokes and a hard shuffle, Berline let the bow ride and put the drive in his left hand. His breaks used variations, so a second pass through Sally Goodin did not sound like the first. That habit came from the contest stage, where judges score variety.
He also swung. His double stops leaned toward western swing harmony, and he could play behind a rock rhythm section without sounding out of place. That mix, contest precision plus a relaxed swing feel, is why producers in Los Angeles called him. The technique is clean enough to record and loose enough to groove.
Influences and legacy
Berline came up in the same contest world as Benny Thomasson, Herman Johnson, and Dick Barrett, and their Texas style is the base of his playing. Bill Monroe gave him the bluegrass repertoire and the tune Gold Rush.
He played beside Dan Crary, John Hickman, Roland White, Alan Munde, and Gram Parsons. Mark O’Connor recorded Gold Rush with Berline and Monroe for his album Heroes, and the pair earned a Grammy nomination for it. Berline’s fiddle shop in Guthrie became a meeting point for Oklahoma pickers, and after his death his bandmates formed new groups to keep his music going.
Signature tunes and songs
Gold Rush Sally Goodin Huckleberry Hornpipe Country Honk.
Essential recordings
Pickin’ and Fiddlin’, the Dillards (1965) Byron Berline and Sundance (MCA, 1976) Dad’s Favorites (1977) Berline, Crary, Hickman (1981) Fiddle and a Song (1995)
Awards and honors
National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest Grand National Champion (1965, 1970) IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year, California (1992, 1993, 1994) Grammy nomination, Best Country Instrumental Performance, Gold Rush with Mark O’Connor (1994) Grammy nomination, Best Bluegrass Album, Fiddle and a Song (1996) Grammy nomination, Best Country Instrumental Performance, Sally Goodin with Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs (1996) National Fiddler Hall of Fame IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award (2012)
Watch and listen
Berline plays Sally Goodin, the tune he cut with Monroe in 1967. Listen for the long bow strokes and the variations on each pass.
Berline plays all three parts of Gold Rush, the tune he wrote with Bill Monroe.
What to learn from Berline
Learn Gold Rush. It is a jam standard in A, it has three parts, and Berline’s own recordings are the reference. Get all three parts and the order right, because many jams know two. The technique to steal is his long bow. Take a tune you play with a shuffle, like Sally Goodin, and play it with one bow stroke per two or four notes instead. Keep the drive in your left hand and let the bow glide. That one change moves your sound from the front porch toward the contest stage, and it records better too.
Sources
Byron Berline, Wikipedia National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest champions, University of Idaho Library RIP Byron Berline, fiddler who seemed larger than life, Bluegrass Today Byron Berline memorial service details, Bluegrass Today Byron Berline, IBMA award recipients Byron Berline, Grammy Awards Byron Berline, NAMM Oral History Country Gazette, Wikipedia
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more bluegrass and contest fiddlers. Berline came from the same Texas contest world as Benny Thomasson and Herman Johnson. He and Kenny Baker both held the fiddle chair in Monroe’s band, and he recorded with Mark O’Connor. His trio partner Dan Crary has a page in the guitar section.