The program starts with Lelly Mae Ledford ("Pretty Polly").  Second on the program is Tommy Jarrell with Barry and Sharon Poss ("Soldier's Joy," "Drunken Hiccups").  The Red Clay Ramblers close the show with "Hobo's Last Letter" and "Where the Twisted Laurel Grows." The latter song was chosen to be the title of the new TV show and is an early example of a music video with scenes of the band mixed in with a story scenes set West Virginia.

Then Mike's friend and Rambler fan Elva Bishop passed along an article and interview "The Ramblers Return."  Back from Africa, the Red Clay Ramblers' Tommy Thompson talks with Joe Vanderford in Spectator Magazine, Nov 19, 1981. 

And Elva also passed along calendars and posters from her archive that Mike has also posted on his website. 

Bill Hicks' daughter, Anna, went downtown in Durham in 2010 and found her dad's picture displayed on a large banner commemorating the founding of the Red Clay Ramblers from the old-time revival in the Hollow Rock area in 1972.  Celebrate!

Text on the LEFT pic says: "Tommy Thompson, Mike Craver, Jim Watson, and Bill Hicks perform at the Carter Family Memorial Music Center in southwest Virginia in the mid-1970s. Photo by Susanne Anderson."  This picture was originally published in The Smithsonian in 1976.

Cindy Dinsmore posted this pic on her Facebook page, and Mike forwarded it for us. 
Front row: Jack Herrick, Mike Craver, Jim Watson, Bill Hicks & Jade, Tommy Thompson.  Back row: Patti Dinsmore, Dave Fry.
(version big enough to see)

TOMMY THOMPSON elected to the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame

(October 12, 2010) Tommy Thompson of St. Albans. Born and raised in St. Albans, Thompson first heard many of the old jazz players and was introduced to Cajun music during a stint as a Coast Guard officer in New Orleans. He entered the graduate program in philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1963 where he divided his time between the five-string banjo and academia. In 1971, he took first place at the prestigious World Champion Old Time Banjo contest in Union Grove, NC. That same year, he co-founded the original Red Clay Ramblers, which he anchored for 22 years. Thompson died in 2003.

The latest inductees into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame are seven musicians who have made lasting contributions to American music.  Besides Tommy Thompson, inductees includ Kathy Mattea and Connie Smith. The formal ceremony will take place in October, 2011, at the state Culture Center.

The Cave—If you're lucky enough to squeeze underground and into The Cave tonight, you'll witness perhaps the state's most beloved and long-lasting musical institution as it continues to chart an unlikely chapter in our collective history. Young string band veterans Tommy Thompson, Jim Watson and Bill Hicks inaugurated their run as Red Clay Ramblers in 1972, adding Mike Craver a year later. The intervening 35 years have brought multiple lineup changes, multimedia experiments, solo albums, duo albums, three international tours sponsored by the State Department, several off-Broadway hits, the revival of one such hit for a new generation, performances at the 1st and 25th Eno festivals, two Carter family funerals, and the death of co-founder Thompson in 2003. Watson, Hicks and Craver roll on several times a year, their preservation of old-time tunes and their own material assisted now by Joe Newberry. —Grayson Currin

Hard Times and Chuckin' the Frizz CDs are here!

Rounder re-issued the Red Clay Ramblers HARD TIMES and CHUCKIN' THE FRIZZ albums as limited edition CDs as part of their Rounder Archive series. 

CHUCKIN' THE FRIZZ, recorded live at the Cat's Cradle in 1979, is considered by many to be the original line-up's finest release.  We have a special page for the honors, accolades, reviews and souvenirs for Frizz.  Read it and get excited with us!

"Red Clay Ramblers, Chuckin' the Frizz -- Any true Ramblers fan knows that this all-too-rare release marks the band's finest hour on record, a well-produced live recording of the rollicking 1979 lineup performing at the old, tinier Cat's Cradle. This is a superior string band at the height of its powers, spinning out traditionals and originals with inspired, infectious fervor." [more]

...Durham Independent 2003

"This is a superbly produced set with a superior recorded sound, fully capturing the rich overtones in the blend of stringed instruments and piano. Craver has never sounded better, and neither has Tommy Thompson, whose voice and banjo playing are adept and gorgeous. His ballad "Hot Buttered Rum" is wonderful, and this moving performance is one of the Red Clay Ramblers' best recorded moments." [more]

...Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide.

Producers: Les Blank, Alice Gerrard, and Cece Conway.  1983 documentary on old-time legend Tommy Jarrell includes a scene of him playing with the Red Clay Ramblers and an brief interview with Bill Hicks. The DVD also includes short films "Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge" (1991) and "My Old Fiddle: A Visit with Tommy Jarrell in the Blue Ridge" (1994)

Dirty Linen, August/September 2005 reviewed by Duck Baker, London, England
One of the best of the many tributes to the Carters that have appeared over the years was recorded in l980 by three members of that unique and wonderful outfit known as the Red Clay Ramblers. It's interesting neither Jim Watson, Tommy Thompson, nor Mike Craver play very much on mandolin, banjo, or piano here, though Thompson does pick up the five-string at times. The main instrument is the guitar, which both Watson and Craver handle nicely in the appropriate Carter style. The main focus is on the vocals, and they are just gorgeous. The leads are heartfelt, the harmonies just right, and the blend reflects all the years these guys had worked together. A variety of approaches is used, and all reflect a deep understanding of and feeling for the music.

Can 25 years really have passed since this record was made? Has Tommy Thompson really, truly gone on, perhaps to sing his parts with Sara, Maybelle and A.P.? Well, we have to believe it, apparently, which makes the reissue of Meeting in the Air that much more welcome. When it first appeared, everyone agreed that this was a great record. Now it seems something more that that, a classic. 

"Morris Family Old Time Music Festival"
a film by Robert Gates
Special Collectors Edition now available!

Tommy Thompson, Bill Hicks, and Eric Olson on stage at Ivydale, WVa in 1972 with many more of the most important traditional musicians of that time

"In the late '60s and early '70s, there was an area revival in old-time music, which brought fiddling and bluegrass traditions down from the Appalachian mountains. The Hollow Rock String Band formed at the Hollow Rock store between Durham and Chapel Hill; the Fuzzy Mountain String Band followed shortly thereafter. In 1972, banjo master Tommy Thompson and two others formed the Red Clay Ramblers, a legendary string band that mixed traditional and contemporary compositions for heel-stomping, toe-tapping national success (they even took their show to Broadway). Still around in various incarnations, individual members of the "Blurs," (a fan nickname for the Ramblers) have gone on to dozens of side projects and, in the process, have created a fearsome and thriving scene in and of themselves."

"Red Clay Ramblers, Chuckin' the Frizz -- Any true Ramblers fan knows that this all-too-rare release marks the band's finest hour on record, a well-produced live recording of the rollicking 1979 lineup performing at the old, tinier Cat's Cradle. This is a superior string band at the height of its powers, spinning out traditionals and originals with inspired, infectious fervor."

New Chuckin' the Frizz pages!  Rounder re-released Frizz on CD in the fall of 2006.  We've beefed up the sparse book that comes with the CD.

Thanks to Libby Hicks generously mailing us all of Bill's scrapbooks, you'll see lots of new souvenirs on the site.  Stir up some great old memories with these new additions.  We've added a posters section for national gigs, Diamond Studs, and international gigs.  Then read what might be the best review ever written of a Red Clay Ramblers show from The Folk Life, March 1977, "The Red Clay Ramblers at Godfrey Daniels."  You'll believe you were there.  Best quote: "Mercy!"

Our site here is eleven years old.  By the size of it, you'd think we'd told the whole story.  But a casual eBay magazine purchase yielded important insights lacking before.  In Option Music Alternatives "Going Through Stages: the Many Careers of the Red Clay Ramblers," (March/April, 1988) Tommy Thompson reveals how the band attracted Sam Shepard's interest and what it was like to collaborate with him.  Roger Miller sampled the band, but spit them back out.  But Eugene Chadbourne not only recorded with RCR, but they also played at his wedding.  If that's not enough, Tommy also delves into RCR's pushing the limits of tradtional music.
**And now Eugene Chadbourne is writing for the All Music Guide and reviewing RCR recordings, Fuzzy Mountain String Band, and the Hollow Rock String Band

Ever wonder if the Red Clay Ramblers had proof of being "gods in Johnson City"?  How about four encores at the Down Home after the hour the beer stopped!  Read the evidence in this 1977 Pickin' review and interview.

Santa Mike Craver sends us pics from his scrapbooks.  The latest are early Red Clay Ramblers clippings as well as the Winnipeg Folk Festival.  Did you know the Red Clay Ramblers were on the soap opera Ryan's Hope? Or that they they did Shakespeare?  Go see!  And he sent along a couple of 70's concert ads from the Village Voice and the NY Times.  The Ramblers were in good company.  For a recent look, see Jim's Christmas 2000 pics and a 1997 benefit for Tommy.  Browse through the Photo Album for pics from the good ol' days.