A great American band! — Sam Shepard

 Wonderful! — Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion

The house band of North Carolina!  — Martin Anderson, WNCW

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, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, 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

 PlayMakers Repertory Company has a hit with ‘Big River,’ the Tony Award-winning musical based on Mark Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn.’ Performances have been added and are selling out.  The show’s built-in appeal stems from the universal popularity of Twain’s comically observant novel and the irresistible twang of Roger Miller’s songs. With this production’s inclusion of the beloved Red Clay Ramblers, and a cast and crew of PlayMakers’ best, anticipation was already high.  Happily, the production fulfills its promise.   — The News & Observer

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!…the Red Clay Ramblers are authentic… they play like angels auditioning for Gabriel. — New York Times

I like two kinds of music – jazz and the Red Clay Ramblers. — Dean Smith, UNC Basketball Coach, 1961-1997

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“Masters of bluegrass, blues, cowboy songs, and fiddle with some pepper on it. A dazzling array of musical idioms.”–Cincinnati Enquirer

“Acoustic music greats.” –Nashville Tennessean

“This band can turn in a half note from hoedown hoofing to swingy, sultry, finger-popping hoochie-coo.
Consummate musicianship and sense of theater.”–Louisville Courier-Journal

“A homespun combo, at ease with country, gospel and what sounds like 1920 pop tomfoolery. These
boys are a delight.” –Associated Press

“On my last visit [to the Carter Family Fold] I saw the Red Clay Ramblers, and they were great.” –Johnny Cash

“America’s premier whatzit band.”–Audio Magazine

“Always-versatile space-age old-time ensemble… Far and away the Triangle’s most successful musical group ever.”
–Raleigh News & Observer

“The Red Clay Ramblers are irresistible.” –New York Newsday

“An elegant weave of acoustic and electronic textures. Bristling drive!”
–Washington Post

“Endlessly inventive… a bluegrass, jazz and general zaniness ensemble with a full helping of musical mirth.”
–San Francisco Examiner

“Though they’re a walking encyclopedia of Americana, the Ramblers never forget they’re up there to
entertain… and their music is a potpourri plucked from the mind set of All Things Considered and delivered with a
tongue-in-cheek twang.” –Greensboro News & Record

“Remarkable.”–The New Yorker

“The brilliant string band from North Carolina.” –The Nation

“Utmost skill and knowledge in an entertaining variety of genres.” –Kalamazoo Gazette

“Set up on the riverbank and played their sweet music for hours at a time.”–Pat Conroy, Beach Music

“Seduces the crowd.”–Le Telegramme (L’Orient, France)

“They know how to make the crowd go wild.” –Ouest-France (L’Orient, France)

“One of the most versatile and entertaining groups, regardless of style, performing today!” –Cincinnati Post

“Acoustic purveyors of down-home foot-stomping music with attitude.” –Seattle Times

 

“Quintuple threats! Calling the members of the Red Clay Ramblers triple-threats is to sell them a couple threats short. First and foremost, there’s the group’s genre- and decade-hopping live performances, multilayered affairs in their own right. Then there are the plays they write and star in, the collaborations and the soundtrack work, not to mention books.”–Independent Weekly

“North Carolina string-band masterminds… Probably no other on-stage band in history has given more
heart and soul with so much inspired genius.”–Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A country band that not only redefines ‘country’ but also redefines ‘band’.”–The New York Post