Red Clay Ramblers

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The Red Clay Ramblers are a North Carolina-based string band founded in Durham, North Carolina in 1972. The original members were Tommy Thompson (banjo), Bill Hicks (fiddle) and Jim Watson (mandolin, bass). With the addition of pianist Mike Craver in 1974, and Jack Herrick (trumpet, bass) in 1976, the band recorded, concertized and performed in theatrical productions, most notably Diamond Studs (Bland Simpson/Jim Wann) off-Broadway in 1975. Their hilarious 1977 recording, Merchants Lunch, describes a trucker's disastrous visit to a Nashville diner. (The diner still exists at the same location, but has been renamed the "Merchant's Restaurant")

Fiddler Bill Hicks left the band in 1981 and was replaced by Clay Buckner. The band continued to perform, including an off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard's Lie of the Mind in 1987. Following that production the personnel of the group changed, with Shawn Colvin and Bland Simpson replacing Watson and Craver. Colvin left the band a year later, replaced by Chris Frank.

The lineup of Thompson, Herrick, Buckner, Simpson and Frank toured internationally from 1987 through 1993, including scoring two Sam Shepard movies (Far North, 1988 and Silent Tongue,1994)^[1]. They acted in Silent Tongue, appearing as an 1870's medicine show band, where they met clowns Bill Irwin and David Shiner and spawned the seeds of what became Fool Moon, which they first performed on Broadway in 1994.

Founder Tommy Thompson retired from the band in 1995, suffering from Alzheimers. He died on January 24, 2003 ^[2]

The band continues to perform and record as a quartet and with banjoist Rick Good of Dayton, Ohio, including composed works for the Atlanta Ballet (2003)^[3] and the North Carolina Ballet (2005)^[4], and the musical "Lone Star Love" off Broadway in 2004-2005^[5]

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