Photo Album
page 5 - early 80s - Transitions
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The Red Clay Ramblers had just lost their first founder.   Bill Hicks retired from the road so Clay Buckner joined with his fiddle.  The band would keep this configuration for the next 5 years or so as they gradually reduced the road work of festivals and concerts and concentrated more and more on theater work, Diamond Studs again in Cleveland then Sam Shepard's Lie of the Mind in New York.

Mike        Safari Jim	1981 The Stars  Come Out (l-r) Clay Buckner, Mike Craver, Jack Herrick, Jim Watson, and Tommy Thompson   The Red Clay Ramblers play at their long-time home venue, The Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC.  These pics, courtesy of Mike, were taken in April, just prior to the Red Clay Ramblers' State Department sponsored tour of Africa .  (photos by Thomas Cox)
more Africa shots | Jim Watson's stories of the trip	Red Clay Ramblers Africa 1981
	Fiddlin' Heroes 1981 Bill Hicks with Tommy Bledsoe and Tommy Jarrell and Alice Gerrard (photos here and below by Mike Craver)
Members of the Highwoods String Band, Hot Mud Family, and Red Clay Ramblers on stage together	Big Names in Old Time at the Harper's Ferry Festival (WVa) l-r Greg Dirth, Dave Edmundsen, Jim Watson, Gary Hopkins, Doug Dorshug, and at piano Suzanne Edmundsen.
	Wedding Gig 1982 They clean up nice! (photo Evelyn Shaw)
	1983 Holstein's Club  Chicago (photos by Lauren Deutsch)
	~1985 Tommy and the new banjo case cover.  (Photo by the cover's creator, Betty Vornbrock)