Paradise Falls
Nick Searcy’s 1997 feature film, scored by The Red Clay Ramblers
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RCR in the Theater
Lone Star Love
Outer Critics Circle Award nomination
“Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical”
TWO Lortel Award nominations!
“Outstanding Musical”
“Outstanding Choreographer”
Fool Moon
Tony-winning Broadway show
Red Clay Ramblers
David Shiner – Bill Irwin
This one-of-a-kind show is a unique comedy featuring two grandmasters of physical lunacy in an evening of sly humor, chaos, and music with The Red Clay Ramblers. Created by Bill Irwin and David Shiner, Fool Moon was awarded a special Tony award in 1999, a Drama Desk Award for “Unique Theatrical Experience,” and an Outer Critics Circle “Special Achievement” Award. The New York Times called the show “sensational;” Time Magazine called Irwin and Shiner “magicians of the human body. They are exquisite.” The show was first performed at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, in the Serious Fun Festival in July 1992. As “Fool Moon,” it next appeared at the Richard Rodgers Theater on Broadway for an eight-month run in 1993 (winning the Ramblers a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Music in a Play), then went on to set box-office records at the Doolittle Theatre in Los Angeles (’94). It played Vienna and Munich (’94), Broadway again (’95), and, in the fall of 1998, “Fool Moon” ran at ACT in San Francisco and Seattle Rep in Seattle, returned to Broadway Nov. ’98-Jan. ’99, and went to Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center for spring, 1999. The creators and company of Fool Moon received a Special Tony Award at the Gershwin Theater in New York City, June 1999.
Kudzu
Book, music and lyrics by Jack Herrick, Doug Marlette, and Bland Simpson
PRODUCTIONS
with the Red Clay Ramblers
* Ford’s Theatre, Washington, D.C. March-June 1998
* Duke University, North Carolina, February 1998
* Goodspeed Opera House / The Norma Terris Theatre, Chester, CT
  World Premiere: May 15 – June 8, 1997
Works for Ballet, Modern, and Traditional Dance
Carolina Jamboree
Music by The Red Clay Ramblers
Choreography by Lynne Taylor-Corbett
Transport yourself back in time when friends and neighbors gathered for a festival of music, song and dance. Fiddles and banjos, pennywhistles and piano all set the mood for stories of love and marriage, passion and mystery. In a unique, three-way partnership, Tony-winning string band The Red Clay Ramblers and Tony Award-nominated resident choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett team up with Carolina Ballet to create a thrilling music and dance experience.
Raleigh News & Observer
“Rambler Ballet Sets Toes Tapping”
“…harmonies are glorious … their dynamic intensity fuels the dancers to frenzied heights…”
The Herald-Sun
“Ramblers’ songs and ballet mix well”
RCR With the Atlanta Ballet: “Ramblin’ Suite”
“Ramblin’ Suite, choreographed by Diane Coburn Bruning, can be described as a mixture of bluegrass and ballet, with a fresh and modern twist to it. A five-piece, live string band, The Red Clay Ramblers, provided the background music for this production, which included 12 dancers clad in outfits that ranged from deep pinks to dark reds and oranges. The ensemble, sometimes together, sometimes in pairs and sometimes even solo, performed a half-hour long series of interconnected stories that subtly narrated tales of the mountain country. The choreography, along with a simplistic but powerful stage décor and the rhythm of the oh-so-appropriate soundtrack, brought to life this production that combined funny elements with a little bit of drama and a whole lot of funk.” – The Signal, Atlanta, GA
Rambleshoe
Red Clay Ramblers and Rhythm in Shoes perform their collaborative work
Rhythm in Shoes – a company of dancers and musicians featuring old-time mountain tunes and flatfoot dancing– partners with the Tony Award-winning American roots music group, The Red Clay Ramblers to tour their collaborative new work, Rambleshoe. Featuring elements of tap, blues, clogging, ragtime, and old-time music and dance the program explores the notion of carrying “home” with you while traveling on the road. With over a dozen musicians and dancers sharing the stage the program will surely be a sight and sound experience!
The Red Clay Ramblers, Live, In Concert
Now in their 40th year, the Tony Award-winning Red Clay Ramblers are a North Carolina string band whose repertoire reflects their roots in old-time mountain music, as well as bluegrass, country, rock, New Orleans jazz, gospel, and the American musical.
In 1993, the Irwin-Shiner-Ramblers hit Fool Moon on Broadway earned the Ramblers their second Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Music in a Play, and Fool Moon in Los Angeles set box-office records; Fool Moon went on to run abroad in Vienna and Munich, returned to Broadway for a second success in late 1995, and had a third Broadway run (Brooks Atkinson Theater, Nov. ’98-Jan. ’99). Fool Moon enjoyed a 5-week run at the Kennedy Center, DC, Feb.-Mar. ’99, and received a Special Tony Award, Gershwin Theater, New York, NY, on June 6th, 1999.
The Ramblers’ long association with music and theater also includes the original New York productions of Diamond Studs (1975) and Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind (1985). In 1988, the Red Clay Ramblers scored Mr. Shepard’s film Far North, and they perform and appear in his second feature, Silent Tongue (Tri-Mark, 1994). The Ramblers also scored Nick Searcy’s Paradise Falls [Best Feature Under $1M, Hollywood Film Festival, Aug. ’98].
The Ramblers have been guests numerous times on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” and have appeared nationally with Jay Leno (NBC-TV “Tonight”), Harry Smith (CBS-TV “This Morning”) and Candice Bergen (ABC-TV “AM-America”). They have toured extensively in North America and in Europe, and have made four USIA concert tours, to eastern Europe, sub-Sahara Africa, North Africa and the Middle East. The Ramblers developed Kudzu: A Southern Musical, in collaboration with Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette, and staged the show at Duke in Durham, NC (Feb. ’98) and Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC (Mar.-June ’98).
Over the years, the Ramblers have performed with such figures as ’98 Grammy-winner Shawn Colvin (a Red Clay Rambler for most of ’87), Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, Eugene Chadbourn, Ireland’s Boys of the Lough, Randy Newman (recorded “Ride, Gambler, Ride” with him for the film Maverick), and Michele Shocked (who brought the Eagles’ Bernie Leadon and a mobile studio to North Carolina to record with the Ramblers). All along, members of the Ramblers have been involved separately in diverse creative projects, including children’s works for the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and the celebratory Carolina musicals King Mackerel, Cool Spring, and Tar Heel Voices.
The Ramblers’ show Fool Moon ran at the Geary Theater, San Francisco (Summer ’01) and their musical Lone Star Love: or, the Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas ran at the Ohio Theater, Cleveland, (Fall ’01). Their album Yonder was released August ’01, and the Ramblers made a national radio appearance on Mountain Stage” (NPR) in 2002. They premiered Ramblin’ Suite with the Atlanta Ballet (Fall ’02); toured Rambleshoe nationally with Dayton’s Rhythm in Shoes (Spring ’03, Spring ’04); and released on CD the scores to both Rambleshoe and Kudzu.
The Ramblers’ ’04-’05 Off Broadway run of Lone Star Love earned Outstanding Musical nominations from both the Lucille Lortel Awards and the NY Outer Critics’ Circle, and the Original Cast Recording of the show was released January 2006 by PS Classics of New York. Their recording Fool Moon, the Music was released September 2007. The Red Clay Ramblers appeared with the North Carolina Symphony New Year’s Eve 2007, and “Carolina Jamboree,” their second ballet, launched by the Carolina Ballet in 2005, was reprised June 2008, and has been broadcast statewide numerous times over UNC Public Television.
The Daily Advance calls the Ramblers’ latest CD, Old North State (released October 2009), “North Carolina culture at its best.” Premier acoustic music station WNCW salutes The Red Clay Ramblers as “the house band of North Carolina.” All over North Carolina during 2010 and 2011, as well as from New York City to St. Louis to Vancouver Island, The Ramblers continue to carry the banner of string-band music far and wide, and with great joy and zest!
Select Venues
The Red Clay Ramblers have performed at these venues, and more…
SELECTED VENUES, 1972 – 2013
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, New York
Alley Theater, Houston, Texas
Ambassador Theatre, Broadway, New York, New York
Appalachian Festival, Coney Island of the West, Cincinnati, Ohio
ArtsCenter, Carrboro, NC
Be Here Now, Asheville, NC
Beaver Falls Bluegrass Festival, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania
Birchmere Music Hall, Alexandria, Virginia
Black Mountain Folk Festival, Black Mountain, NC
Bluemont Festival, Leesburg, Virginia
Briarfields Bluegrass Festival, Briarfields, Alabama
Brooks Atkinson Theater, Broadway, New York, New York
Broyhill Center, Lenoir, NC
Cape Fear Botanical Garden, Fayetteville, NC
Cat’s Cradle, Chapel Hill, NC
Carolina Theater, Durham, NC
Celebrate Brooklyn Festival, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Oxford, Mississippi
Center for Advancement of Teaching, Atlantic Beach, NC and Pinehurst, NC
Center for the Study of the American South, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Center Stage, Baltimore, Maryland
Champlain Valley Festival, Vergennes, Vermont
Cheboygan Opera House, Cheboygan, Michigan
City Winery, New York, NY
Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area, Cuyahoga, Ohio
Denver Botanical Garden, Denver, Colorado
Down Home Pickin’ Parlor, Johnson City, Tennessee
Drama Desk Awards, New Victory Theatre, New York, NY
Edgecombe County Community College, Tarboro, NC
Festival Interceltique, L’Orient, Brittany, France
Fifth Avenue Theatre, Seattle, Washington
First Night, Raleigh, NC (1993, 1999)
Fishtowne Alley, Beaufort, NC
Ford’s Theatre, Washington, DC
Fox Theater, Atlanta, Georgia
Franklin Pierce College, Rindge, New Hampshire
Gerstcircus, Utrecht, Holland
Goodspeed Opera House’s Norma Terris Theatre, Chester, CT
Gordon Center for the Performing Arts, Owings Mills, MD
Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, California
Grove Park Inn, Asheville, North Carolina
Hampton Pier, Hampton, Virginia
Haywood Arts Repertory Theatre, Waynesville, NC
Hiawatha Festival, Marquette, Michigan
High Point Theater, High Point, NC (NC Presenters Consortium)
James Doolittle Theatre, Hollywood, California
John Houseman Theater, New York, NY
Jubilee Hall, Knoxville, Tennessee
Kentucky Performing Arts Center, Louisville, KY
Kerrville Folk Festival, Kerrville, Texas
Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Regency Park, Cary, NC
Kiva Auditorium, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Lime Kiln Arts, Lexington, Virginia
Life of Virginia Concert Series, Richmond, Virginia
McCabe’s, Santa Monica, California
Maine Festival, Brunswick, Maine
Manhattan Square Park, Rochester, New York
Memorial Hall, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC
Memphis-Cooke County Convention Center, Memphis, TN
Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh, NC
Mr. Whitekeys, Anchorage, Alaska
Moore Square, Raleigh, NC (with NC Symphony)
Morris County Parks, Morrisville, New Jersey
Mountain Stage, Charleston, West Virginia
National Flatpicking Championship, Winfield, Kansas
National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals, New York City, NY
Newberry Opera House, Newberry, SC
North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Atlantic Beach, NC, and Pinehurst, NC
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Ohio Theater, Playhouse Square, Cleveland, Ohio
Old Town Music Hall, Chicago, Illinois
Opera House, Mitchell, Indiana
Opera House, Woodstock, Illinois
Painted Bride, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Palace Theatre, Cleveland, Ohio
Paramount Theater, Burlington, NC
Peter Britt Festival, Medford, Oregon
Philadelphia Folk Festival, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC
Playhouse Theater, Rocky Mount, NC
Paul Green Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill, NC
Raleigh Memorial Auditorium, Raleigh, NC
Regency Park, Cary, NC (with NC Symphony)
Reynolds Theatre, Duke University, Durham, NC
Richard Rodgers Theatre, Broadway, New York, New York
Rocky Gap Music Festival, Rocky Gap, Maryland
San Diego State University, San Diego, California
Seafoodfest in Ballard, Seattle, Washington
Concert Sundaes, Souderton Park, Souderton, Pennsylvania
Spirit Square, Charlotte, NC
Splendor of the Seas, cruise ship, Mediterranean Sea
State Theatre, Kalamazoo, Michigan
Station Inn, Nashville, Tennessee
Stevens Center, Winston-Salem, NC
Stewart Theatre, NC State University, Raleigh, NC
Strawberry Festival, Yosemite National Park, California
Sunrise Theater, Southern Pines, NC
SUNY-Stonybrook, Long Island, New York
Tall Stacks Festival, Cincinnati, Ohio
Temple Theatre, Sanford, NC
Thalian Hall, Wilmington, NC
The Barns, Wolf Trap, McLean, Virginia
The Palms, Davis, California
Tonder Folk and Jazz Festival, Tonder, Denmark
The Town Crier, Beacon, NY
Town Hall, New York, NY
Turnage Theater, Washington, NC
Under the Street, Durham, NC
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama
University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon
Vancouver Folk Festival, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Vancouver Island Music Festival
Virginia Film Festival, Charlottesville, Virginia
Walton Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland
Water Street Cafe, Wilmington, NC
Westside Theater, New York, New York
Weymouth Festival, Southern Pines, NC
Wheatlands Festival, Remus, Michigan
Wilson Arts Council, Wilson, NC
Winnipeg Folk Festival, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Winterfest, Frederick, Maryland
World Theatre, St. Paul, Minnesota
***
Four US State Department tours: of Rumania; Egypt, Jordan (twice); Sub-Sahara Africa; Syria, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco
Re-use of this information is permitted under the GFDL
The Red Clay Ramblers: North Carolina’s Tony Award-winning String Band
“A great American band!” — Sam Shepard
“Wonderful!” — Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion
The Red Clay Ramblers gave a rollicking, refreshing, and raucous performance at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Center for the Arts. The full house roared their approval, and demanded encores. It was one of the best shows of the season! -Steve Allred, University of Richmond
A musical group whose eclectic repertory is that of a fantasy roadhouse band from a vanished rural America. Bluegrass, New Orleans, classical folk and gospel sounds emerge in nutty profusion from these talented instrumentalists and singers, whose music making is perfection. — The New York Times
The Red Clay Ramblers were formed as a traditional string band in North Carolina in 1972 but soon brought a theatrical sensibility to their music-making, teaming up with Sam Shepard for his Off Broadway play ‘A Lie of the Mind’ in the eighties and scoring a couple of his films. The Ramblers earned a special Tony in the nineties for their collaboration with Bill Irwin and David Shiner on ‘Fool Moon,’ and continue to invest their country with a little neon. — The New Yorker
