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1972 - 1981 The
Musicians
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1972-1981 
Red Clay Ramblers on stage at the A.P. Carter Store (photo from the Smithsonian) |
before and after Chronology News Site Map Links Fuzzy Mountain String Band Hollow Rock String Band Jesse's Letters Tribute Sites Bill Hicks 1943-2018 Tommy Thompson 1937-2003 |
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| "...the
legendary Red Clay Ramblers... the much-loved Triangle area band that set
the standard for acoustic fusion, melding bluegrass with jazz and rock
long before anyone else had thought of it." |
They
were gods in Johnson City...
The Red Clay Ramblers began in 1972 as a trio of musicians who had been playing in and around Chapel Hill, N.C. The original lineup included Tommy Thompson, Jim Watson, and Bill Hicks, with Mike Craver joining in 1973. |
"Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!...the Red Clay Ramblers are authentic...they play like angels auditioning for Gabriel"...Clive Barnes, NY Times | |
| "their traditional material is refreshingly original, while their original songs manage to keep an old-time flavor" ...Wheatland Festival |
"...a most excellent original Red Clay Ramblers site (with) loads of great information" ...Keith Weston -- folk music director, WUNC-FM 91.5 Chapel Hill |
"America's premier whatzit band" ...Audio magazine | |
| "Their music is a living, ongoing, growing continuation and recreation of history, a breathing flesh-and-blood museum." ...Ed Davis, Daily News | "One of the most authentic of the string - band revival groups...such talent and authority that for years they have been considered among the best of the modern revivalists of string - band music"...tunes.com | "the quintessential roots band" ...Green Man Review | |
| “the finest old time string band now playing anywhere”...Folk Life magazine | "The Ramblers really have something for everyone -- they are bawdy, bright, funny and establish instant rapport with their audience." ...Joe Wilson, executive director, National Folk Festival Association | "old-timey visionaries" ...Bill Ellis, GoMemphis.com | |
| "The Red Clay Ramblers must have the highest aggregate IQ and the most university degrees of any string band that ever lived" ...Hal Crowther, Oxford American | "The Red Clay Ramblers are the most important group formed during the string-band revival that occurred in the 1970s around Durham, in central North Carolina." ...Smithsonian Folkways | "A band that might have existed in 1930, but didn't."...Original fiddler Bill Hicks | |
| "The best old-time music show bar none of the folkie revival of the seventies." ...John McLaughlin, "Roots and Wings" WESS Pennsylvania |
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"One of the most versatile bands in the business ... consistently high standard of quality"...MusicHound Country: The Essential Album Guide | |
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