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"...the legendary Red Clay Ramblers... the band that set the standard for acoustic fusion, melding bluegrass with jazz and rock long before anyone else had thought of it..." - ESP Magazine

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Purchase our CDs directly from the website or at these fine stores:

McIntyre's Fine Books at Fearrington Village

Quail Ridge Books & Music, Raleigh

Regulator Bookshop, Durham

Page After Page Bookstore, Elizabeth City

Bulls Head Bookshop, UNC Campus

Dismal Swamp Welcome Center, South Mills, NC

Concert, Festival and Stage: Please Join Us!

Please join us at one of these events in 2010-2011; also noted are events of individual Red Clay Ramblers in other settings:

June 25th: The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: City Winery, New York, NY

June 26th: The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: Celebrate Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY

July 9-11th: The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: Vancouver Island Music Festival, Courtenay, V.I., BC

July 24th: The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: NC Museum of Art Amphitheatre, Raleigh, NC

Sept 15th: The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: With Earl Scruggs, Memorial Hall UNC, Chapel Hill, NC

Sept 17th:    The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
Sept 18th:    The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: City of Morganton Municipal Auditorium, Morganton, NC
Oct. 15-17th:    The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: LEAF Festival, Black Mountain, NC

Oct. 22nd: The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: Turnage Theater, Washington, NC

Oct. 23rd: The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: First Flight Performing Arts, Kill Devil Hills, NC

Nov. 6th: The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: Thalian Hall, Wilmington, NC
Dec. 10th: The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: Spirit Square, Blumenthal Center, Charlotte, NC
Dec. 11th: The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: Randolph County Community Arts Center, Elkins, West Virginia
May 6th, 2011: The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert: Sheldon Concert Hall, St. Louis, MO

APRIL 6-24, 2011: The Red Clay Ramblers will appear in PlayMakers Repertory Company's production of the Roger Miller-William Hauptman musical BIG RIVER: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Paul Green Theatre, UNC Chapel Hill >> Click for more information <<

Last Updated on Friday, 23 July 2010 11:08

From the Archives: RCR in Syria, 1992

Syria Times, 1992

"'Music is not a product, but a process, the beginning of a process. It is constantly renewall. It starns the test as art by giving rise to traditions,' says Blard Simpson, member of the US musical band Red Clay ramblers currently visiting Syria at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture..." - Syria Times

There are no typos in that quote, believe it or not, from the english language Syria Times, from an interview Bland did during our trip there for the State Department in 1992 (we used to send bluegrass and jazz over "there", instead of boys and bombs). He is also quoted saying our music was "mainly built on the charm and deep affection of a country or say mountain music, to which art is always graded in the first place.", and listed Tommy thusly: Tomay Thopson Cleader (banjo). Ha! Tommy was henceforth "the Cleader" (I don't think we realized it should have been "Mr. Cleader"!).

We traversed Syria, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan and Egypt on the tour, a fabulous time, we were ambassadors and celebrities for six great weeks. Click here for a pdf of the entire article.