North Carolina

Joe Thompson (1918-2012)

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[Photo by E. Smith, June 2010.]

On Monday February 20th, Joe Thompson passed away at the age of 93.  He was considered to be the last living traditionally schooled African-American fiddler.

On a beautiful day in early June of 2010 my band The Dust Busters paid a visit to the home of Joe and Polly Thompson.  Joe Thompson lived outside of Mebane, NC.  He started playing fiddle at 5 years old, way back in 1923.  Joe was a World War II veteran and was long retired from his job at a furniture factory.  He continued to play music until very recently at home and at gigs including taking his music to Carnegie Hall in New York City, the National Folk Festival and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the International Music Festival in Brisbane, Australia.  In 2007 Joe Thompson was honored with the National Heritage Fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Arts.  The Carolina Chocolate Drops have spent a lot of time with Joe and have learned a lot from him.  They continue to present many of his tunes in their performances.  Joe Thompson was a wonderful man and a very fine musician and singer, the likes of whom we will not see again.

His recordings are available.  Here are a few:

Joe Thompson: Family Tradition
Black Banjo Songsters of N Carolina & Virginia
Carolina Chocolate Drops & Joe Thompson

Click Here for the recording and interview I did with Joe Thompson in June of 2010 when we visited him at his home.

Here is a link to a nice obituary:
Joe Thompson, 1918-2012: County treasure, irreplaceable artist left lasting legacy

And clips from a film made about Joe:

A Visit with Joe Thompson

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[Photos by E. Smith]

On a beautiful day in early June my band The Dust Busters paid a visit to the home of Joe and Polly Thompson.  Joe Thompson is 91 and lives outside of Mebane, NC.  He has been playing fiddle since he was 5 years old, way back in 1923 and is perhaps the very last traditionally schooled African-American fiddler in the world. Joe is a World War II veteran and is long retired from his job at a furniture factory.  He continues to play music at home and at gigs including taking his music to Carnegie Hall in New York City, the National Folk Festival and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the International Music Festival in Brisbane, Australia.  In 2007 Joe Thompson was honored with the National Heritage Fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Arts.  The Carolina Chocolate Drops have spent a lot of time with Joe and have learned a lot from him.  They continue to present many of his tunes in their performances.  We met Joe at the 2nd Black Banjo Gathering, held in Boone, NC in March of this year.

Joe Thompson with The Dust Busters Joe Thompson with The Dust Busters

We sat around the Thompson’s picnic table in the field behind their house and played a number of tunes as Joe recalled his musical family and his upbringing.  Joe and Polly were tremendously nice and hospitable and we were really touched and honored to spend time with them.  Here are some excerpts from the long afternoon that we spent at the Thompson’s home.

Big thanks go to Joe and Polly’s friend Larry Vellani for bringing us to their home that day, and a shout out goes to our friend Steve Kruger who joined us with his banjo and guitar.

Here’s the songs we played that you’ll hear on this recording:

I Shall Not be Moved
John Henry
Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad
Lights in Valley
Georgia Buck
Molly Put the Kettle On
Ladies on the Steamboat
Molly Put the Kettle On
I’ve Got Oil in my Vessel
Careless Love

More photos below:


And don’t forget to check out our friends at the Old Time Herald Magazine – www.oldtimeherald.org – lots of great articles, reviews and more!

Interview with Clifton Hicks

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

On today’s show I speak with Clifton Hicks, a great young banjo player originally from Florida and Georgia who now resides in Boone, NC.  I’ve known and known about Clif for a while now, ever since he sent in his home recordings to Down Home Radio.  I was blown away by his singing and playing and was very happy to finally meet him when I was in Boone at the Black Banjo Gathering in March.  Hicks is a protege of George Gibson and was kind enough to set up an interview for me with George which we heard on the last installment of Down Home Radio.  In this interview Clifton speaks about his family background and introduction to the music, gives some thoughtful notes on his style and technique as a musician and plays a bunch of tunes live on the show.  He also speaks about his experiences as a soldier in Iraq which led him to oppose the war and get involved with IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War).  Clifton Hicks is one of my favorite musicians and it was great to finally get him on the program.  He will be appearing at the Jalopy Theater on Saturday May 22nd as part of the Brooklyn Folk Festival.  Check it out!

Below are some videos:

Tompkins Square Records’ new release- “I’m Going Down to North Carolina”

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red fox chasers

On today’s show I speak with Josh Rosenthal, the founder of the New York based Tompkins Square Records.  This is  a great record company that has been putting out really interesting CDs, Lps and 45s over the last few years.  There latest is “I’m Going Back to North Carolina: The Complete Recordings of the Red Fox Chasers [1928-31].” Its a wonderful 2 disc set remastered by Chris King who made the old records sound real good!  The Red Fox Chasers are a classic era old-time string band that I hadn’t really checked out before.  Turns out they’re great!  On today’s show we draw from that set as well as a number of other Tompkins Square releases, the brand new soon to be released Frank Fairfield self-titled album, the Cd of 100 year old amazing recordings by Polk Miller and His Old South Quartette, Spencer Moore, Charlie Louvin and more!

I will be hosting two CD release events for the “I’m Going Back to North Carolina” album, one in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn.  The Manhattan event is Sat. Sept 12th and Banjo Jim’s on the Lower East Side and will feature The East River String Band, The Whistling Wolves, and Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders playing with my band The Dust Busters.  The Brooklyn show will be held at the Jalopy Theater on Thursday Sept. 17th and will feature Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the Strung Out String Band and Peter Stampfel with the Dust Busters.  Gonna be great shows!  Hope to see you there if yer in the New York area.