Biography
If bluegrass musicians received knighthoods for distinguished service to their art, Clarence Tate would rank among the first so honored, though he has long answered to Tater rather than any formal title. A pivotal childhood experience arrived when he caught the initial WCYB Bristol broadcast by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs performing “Train 45,” the very occasion on which those two bluegrass pioneers first joined forces. The opening fiddle strains, Tate later recounted, sent chills along his spine; shortly afterward his mother departed the household, an event whose connection to the music remains unproven, though skeptics of the genre have sometimes entertained fanciful interpretations. Already proficient on mandolin and guitar, he had encountered bluegrass sounds before, yet the particular fiddle tone he heard prompted an immediate shift to that instrument while he retained his earlier ones and gradually mastered several more, eventually joining the small circle of players capable of overdubbing an entire band single-handedly—an experiment he has not yet undertaken.
His apprenticeship included stints with Jimmy Martin’s outfit and Carl Story’s Rambling Mountaineers, groups that served as proving grounds for numerous bluegrass sidemen. The longest and most consequential association, however, developed with Bill Monroe, for whom Tate became one of the most fiery fiddlers, logging more consecutive years as a Bluegrass Boy than any other musician and repeatedly featured on “Orange Blossom Special” during endless road trips. In Monroe’s later period, when Kenny Baker occupied the fiddle chair, Tate returned on bass. Equally at home on electric and acoustic bass, he contributed to sessions beyond bluegrass, including the sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s Dancer With Bruised Knees, and approached the instrument with a bassist’s native sensibility.
Such extended service to Monroe never curtailed outside work. Over the decades he performed and recorded with the Timberliners, his own Bluegrass Cut-Ups, and ensembles led by Billy Edwards, John Palmer, Herschel Sizemore, Jim Eanes, Cliff Waldron, Wesley Golding, Gene Burrows, Udell McPhee, Bobby Hicks, and Tom McKinney. He also rejoined childhood hero Lester Flatt & the Nashville Grass, becoming the final fiddler Flatt ever employed; among their collaborations was “Peacock Rag,” a piece now closely identified with Tate and selected for the Great American Fiddle Collection anthology.
As a bandleader, Tate favored straightforward readings of traditional fiddle repertoire, a preference reflected in album titles themselves. Rural Rhythm issued 20 Favorites of USA and Canada in the 1960s; All Time Fiddle Favorites later appeared on Smiley and Rimrock; with Shot Jackson he cut 20 Beautiful Waltzes; and with Billy Edwards he released Fiddle and Banjo Tunes, reissued on Grassound among other labels. Monroe-era documentation includes the Smithsonian/Folkways set Off the Record, capturing live performances alongside banjoist Don Reno, while MCA sides with Mac Wiseman also feature Tate’s fiddle. Regular Grand Ole Opry appearances and several television spots further marked his schedule. In 2001 he surfaced among the veteran bluegrass musicians supporting Patty Loveless on Mountain Soul, an album celebrating the country singer’s Appalachian roots. Heartened by renewed interest in the style, Tate joined the Cumberland Highlanders in 2000, an all-star ensemble containing four former Monroe Bluegrass Boys and half a dozen additional members whose combined experience totals nearly three centuries in the music.
Tate’s prominence among these figures receives an unexpected nod in John Hartford’s Mark Twang, where the track “Tater Tate and Allen Mundy” simply strings together names of bluegrass and old-time heroes.
His apprenticeship included stints with Jimmy Martin’s outfit and Carl Story’s Rambling Mountaineers, groups that served as proving grounds for numerous bluegrass sidemen. The longest and most consequential association, however, developed with Bill Monroe, for whom Tate became one of the most fiery fiddlers, logging more consecutive years as a Bluegrass Boy than any other musician and repeatedly featured on “Orange Blossom Special” during endless road trips. In Monroe’s later period, when Kenny Baker occupied the fiddle chair, Tate returned on bass. Equally at home on electric and acoustic bass, he contributed to sessions beyond bluegrass, including the sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s Dancer With Bruised Knees, and approached the instrument with a bassist’s native sensibility.
Such extended service to Monroe never curtailed outside work. Over the decades he performed and recorded with the Timberliners, his own Bluegrass Cut-Ups, and ensembles led by Billy Edwards, John Palmer, Herschel Sizemore, Jim Eanes, Cliff Waldron, Wesley Golding, Gene Burrows, Udell McPhee, Bobby Hicks, and Tom McKinney. He also rejoined childhood hero Lester Flatt & the Nashville Grass, becoming the final fiddler Flatt ever employed; among their collaborations was “Peacock Rag,” a piece now closely identified with Tate and selected for the Great American Fiddle Collection anthology.
As a bandleader, Tate favored straightforward readings of traditional fiddle repertoire, a preference reflected in album titles themselves. Rural Rhythm issued 20 Favorites of USA and Canada in the 1960s; All Time Fiddle Favorites later appeared on Smiley and Rimrock; with Shot Jackson he cut 20 Beautiful Waltzes; and with Billy Edwards he released Fiddle and Banjo Tunes, reissued on Grassound among other labels. Monroe-era documentation includes the Smithsonian/Folkways set Off the Record, capturing live performances alongside banjoist Don Reno, while MCA sides with Mac Wiseman also feature Tate’s fiddle. Regular Grand Ole Opry appearances and several television spots further marked his schedule. In 2001 he surfaced among the veteran bluegrass musicians supporting Patty Loveless on Mountain Soul, an album celebrating the country singer’s Appalachian roots. Heartened by renewed interest in the style, Tate joined the Cumberland Highlanders in 2000, an all-star ensemble containing four former Monroe Bluegrass Boys and half a dozen additional members whose combined experience totals nearly three centuries in the music.
Tate’s prominence among these figures receives an unexpected nod in John Hartford’s Mark Twang, where the track “Tater Tate and Allen Mundy” simply strings together names of bluegrass and old-time heroes.
Albums