Memorial Tribute to Tommy Thompson

RCR Reissues & TT Sheet Music

"The Original Ramblin' Men"

In turn, UNC-Chapel Hill student Mike Craver found himself inspired by the string band music brought to him courtesy of the Rambler trio at such Chapel Hill clubs as the New Establishment, Endangered Species and Cat's Cradle. "The songs were very vivid. They were catchy, and they were these old things from the Depression, the '20s and '30s," he recalls. "To a college kid, they made a big impression." Craver, a pianist who grew up playing classical music, was hooked, and he signed on in '73.

Those early shows pulled from the catalogs of Ralph Stanley, Charlie Poole, the Carter Family and even Bessie Smith, with an emphasis on songs that showcased the band's lively harmony singing. As Hicks put it, "We just kind of learned old stuff." The African-American string band Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong, who'd been playing together since the '30s under a variety of names including the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, also was an important influence. Hicks was fortunate enough to learn fiddle tunes from veteran players such as Tommy Jarrell and Burl Hammonds, and those songs would work their way on the set list. "The basic principle of the band in those years was that everybody was a creative force," says Hicks. "We more or less just went around the circle, 'What do you wanna do? What do you wanna do?'"

Thompson was a triple threat on the banjo, with the ability to play using the clawhammer, three-finger roll and plectral styles, and the ginger-bearded, ex-football player was also a larger-than-life presence. With Craver on piano, Watson contributing mandolin and guitar, an upright bass making the rounds, and everybody singing, all the ingredients were in place for shows that offered both variety and honest-to-God entertainment. "I think playing's about expression," Hicks states, and he and the other Ramblers' fondness for performing as opposed to just tossing off notes earned them an even bigger following.

The Red Clay Ramblers continued to evolve as bands tend to do, at least those that don't consider complacency to be a valid musical direction. There were performances in the Chapel Hill-born, New York City-embraced play Diamond Studs: The Life of Jesse James, followed by even more original material and new members. In 1981 Hicks was the first original Red Clay Rambler to leave the band, with Watson and Craver staying on board for another five years. All three stayed busy with other projects over the years--Craver has written several plays, Watson tours with Robin and Linda Williams, Hicks and his wife Libby are mainstays at festivals and contra dances, and each has released solo albums--and it wasn't until the 2001 Festival for the Eno that the three reunited.

When Craver, Hicks and Watson get together under the name the Original Red Clay Ramblers, it's truth in advertising on two levels: It is three of the original members (Joe Newberry, a strong clawhammer banjoist and singer, sits in the late Tommy Thompson's seat), plus you'll hear the sound that characterized the Ramblers in their early days. A laughing Watson comments on another element, the identification factor: "We like playing music with each other, but if we're going to play, we also like people to show up. So by using that name, it lets people know who we are."

That said, to keep the evening from being a total nostalgia trip, there's a good chance that a song from one of the artists' solo recordings might show up alongside a selection like "The Ace," one of the earliest Thompson-Craver collaborations. And there are apparently a couple of other differences between then and now. "There were a lot more young people in the audience back then," a laughing Hicks says. "And we'd stay up later."

Craver. Watson, Hicks, of the Original Red Clay Ramblers play The Cave in Chapel Hill on Friday, Nov. 25.

photo of the band by John Rosenthal, 1973

MEETING IN THE AIR - SONGS OF THE CARTER FAMILY SUNG AND PLAYED BY TOMMY THOMPSON, JIM WATSON & MIKE CRAVER is now available on CD. Digitally remastered and reissued. This album was first released in l980 by Flying Fish Records and has languished in the vaults at Rounder for lo these many years. Jim Watson and I finally got it together to lease the title and re-issue it under our own labels: Barker/Sapsucker. We are selling it on-line: FMI -- information about ordering by check is there also. This CD is also distributed by the Record Depot, and by John Hatton of Cleff'd Ear, if you happen to be out on the festival grounds anytime soon. We think the record sounds real good. Some of that pesky 70's era noise reduction was decoded and it seems to sound cleaner and stronger than ever. It's all in a dandy new digipak with lyric booklet. It includes great Tommy vocals on the title cut, +banjo on "A Stern Old Bachelor", and my favorite, his doubletracked exploration and coming-round-the-mountain reading of "My Dixie Darling".

Film-maker Bruce Westbrook has been showing his film, One Day in the Past, around the NC Triangle area. This is an art film that won the North Carolina Film Festival some time back, and several other prizes. The film is a dramatic and experimental film, not a documentary. One Day in the Past is "an experimental drama. Two people living on an isolated farm. A third person seems to be out there somewhere. Haunting, evocative. With music by Tommy Thompson and Bill Hicks." This film will be shown as part of the "North Carolina Filmmakers Series" on Friday March 25 8 PM. At the Richard White Lecture Hall on East Campus of Duke University. Two or more dramatic features by Bruce Westbrook or Bill Turner and maybe a recently digitized blues documentary "Step it Up and Go" or "Shine"--made by local filmmakers in 1989 or Y2K. This event is FREE and open to ALL. Richard White Hall is at the "two o'clock position" on the traffic circle on East Campus, next to the East Duke Building.. (Come in off Main Street and park your car before you see the statue of the guy sitting in a chair). Also showing will be "STEP IT UP AND GO" a documentary portrait many of North Carolina "piedmont style" acoustic blues musicians in 1989. Thomas Burt, Etta Baker, John D. Holeman, Joe and Odell Thompson and many more. A fun movie. Narrated by Glen Hinson.will be shown, along with Soundtrack music is by Tommy Thompson and Bill Hicks. FMI: http://www.geocities.com/onedayinthepast

Adam Miller, a folksinger and autoharpist from Woodside, CA, has recorded Tommy's song "Twisted Laurel" on his new CD "Orphan Train". FMI, visit Adam's website: www.folksinging.org/.

NPR's Steve Inskeep did a nice piece about Tommy on "All Things Considered" Sunday Jan 26, 2003. Transcript. The audio is archived at: http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=940062

Hal Crowther on Tommy Thompson in the THE OXFORD AMERICAN

Bill Hicks tribute to Tommy in the OLD TIME HERALD.

The Red Clay Rambler Reunion for Tommy Thompson aired Jan. 1st, 2004 on WUNC-FM. Portions of the June 14th '03 concert at the North Carolina Museum of Art were broadcast on a segment of "The State of Things", hosted by Frank Stasio. Current and former Red Clay Ramblers all took part. Selections included "You've Been a Friend to Me", "The Hobo's Last Letter", "The Ace", "Rabbit in the Pea Patch", "Cotton Eyed Joe", "Yonder", "Jim Canaan's", "Hard Times", "The Yellow Rose of Texas", "Churchill and Roosevelt", and "Traveling That Highway Home". Included was a especially luxurious little version of "I've Got Plans", one of Tommy's songwriting gems. Clay Buckner did the great singing on this one. The broadcast included a segment of Tommy performing "The Last Song of John Profitt" recorded in the mid-90's for WUNC. WUNC's "Back Porch Music" was a co-sponsor of the concert event and it was organized by George Holt. A totally awesome eve, and a nice broadcast of! For accounts and pix of the event: RCR Reunion at the NCMA)

Jack Bernhardt has written a remembrance of Tommy that appeared in the Spring/Summer 2003 issue of the North Carolina Folklore Journal. The article is transcribed here

The AUSTIN LOUNGE LIZARDS have just recorded "Merchants Lunch" -- a song that Tommy and Mike wrote and recorded with the Ramblers back in 1977. This new version is on the LIZARDS' latest album "Strange Noises in the Dark", released in the Spring of 2004. Tom Pittman sings the lead vocal and does a great job!

The Orange County North Carolina Board of Commissioners Resolution in Honor of Tommy Thompson of the Red Clay Ramblers was passed March 24, 2003. "(To)celebrate the outstanding creative, cultural, and intellectual contributions of Tommy Thompson's life and his deeply rooted commitment to civil rights and progressive achievements during his life, and mourn the loss of this great cultural resource, who came to represent the music of the Tar Heel State to a worldwide audience." For a copy of the complete resolution go to http://originalredclayramblers.com/images/tt_resolution.jpg

John Rosenthal essay - excellent snapshot of a time and a place,

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