Have read about his passing on various social media accounts etc.
Nearly every one of them leads with "fiddler player on Country Honk passes" or similar.
Amazing to me as accomplished as he was in the bluegrass world as well as all the other artists/bands that he sat in on sessions with, the Country Honk is regarded as his most famous session.
Says a lot about the Stones in terms of respect for them and what I considered to be more of a hardcore fan favorite than a mainstream one. RIP.
Excerpt from his NY Times obit..
Byron Berline, Master of the Bluegrass Fiddle, Dies at 77His updated version of an old-timey approach enhanced recordings by everyone from Bill Monroe to the Rolling Stones.Mr. Parsons recommended Mr. Berline for what would become undoubtedly his most famous session appearance: the freewheeling fiddle part he added to “Country Honk,” the Rolling Stones’ down-home take on their 1969 pop smash “Honky Tonk Women.” Recorded in Los Angeles, the song was included on “Let It Bleed,” the group’s landmark album released that December.
“I went in and listened to the track and started playing to it,” Mr. Berline said of his experience with the Stones in a 1991 interview with The Los Angeles Times.
When he was summoned to the control booth, he recalled, he feared the band was unhappy with his work. Instead, they invited him to recreate his performance on the sidewalk along Sunset Boulevard, where the Elektra studio, where they were recording the track, was located. Hence the car horns and other ambient street sounds captured on the session.
“There was a bulldozer out there moving dirt,” Mr. Berline said. “Mick Jagger went out himself and stopped the guy.”
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www.nytimes.com]