Tommy Thompson passed away on January 24, 2003 in Durham, NC. Our sympathies go out to his daughter Jesse and son Tom Ashley and their families.  The musical community mourns his loss but cherishes his contributions.
Red Clay Ramblers Reunion for Tommy
NC Museum of Art - 6/14/03
Mike Craver's Tommy page
tributes, radio playlists, pictures

Tommy Thompson
July 22, 1937 - January 24, 2003

Tommy Thompson was inducted into the West Virginia Hall of Fame in 2011.
John Baumgartner's video, "Tommy Thompson Vignette," gives an overview of Tommy's career.
Just across the blue ridge, where the high meadows lay
And the galax spreads through the new mown hay,
There’s a rusty iron bridge, cross a shady ravine
Where the hard road ends and turns to clay.
With a suitcase in his hand there the lonesome boy stands,
Gazing at the river sliding by beneath his feet,
But the dark water springs from the black rocks and flows
Out of sight where the twisted laurel grows.

Past the coal-tipple towns in the cold December rain,
Into Charleston runs the New River train.
Where the hillsides are brown, and the broad valley’s stained
By a hundred thousand lives of work and pain.
In a tar-paper shack out of town across the track,
Stands an old used-up man trying to call something back,
But his old memories fade like the city in the haze
And his days have flowed together like the rain.

And the dark water springs from the black rocks and flows
Out of sight where the twisted laurel grows.

–Tommy Thompson, 1976


March 8, 2014