Bill
Mike
Jim
Tommy
Jack
The Later Years 1987-1999

         Now in their 27th year, the Red Clay Ramblers are a North Carolina string band whose repertoire reflects their roots in old-time mountain music, as well as country, rock, Dixieland, bluegrass and gospel.  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 five-week run at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, Feb.-Mar. ‘99, and received a Special Tony Award at the Tony Ceremonies, Gershwin Theater, New York, NY, on June 6th, 1999. 
          The Ramblers' long association with music and theater 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 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.  More recently, the Ramblers developed Kudzu: A Southern Musical, in collaboration with Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette; after performing in the sold-out Kirstcircus of Utrecht, Holland, the Ramblers returned home to stage Kudzu at Duke in Durham, NC (Feb. ‘98) and Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC (Mar.-June ‘98).
          Over the years, the Ramblers have performed and/or recorded 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, 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 in diverse creative projects, including children's works for the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the celebratory Carolina musicals King Mackerel, Cool Spring, and Tar Heel Voices, as well as scoring for The Learning Channel and for such independent films as John Sayles' The Secret of Roan Innish and Nick Searcy's Paradise Falls [Best Feature, Hollywood Film Festival, Aug. ‘98].  Drummer Rob Ladd has also toured and performed with Alanis Morrisette, Meredith Brooks, and Vonda Shepard, with whom he  recorded the TV theme song for the series "Ally McBeal."
          The Ramblers returned to New York City in April ‘99 for a 2-week workshop of Lonestar Love: the Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas, featuring Jim Belushi as Colonel Falstaff, and performed Fool Moon aboard the ship Splendor of the Seas in the Mediterranean in May ‘99.

Red Clay Ramblers  - 1990
Tommy Thompson, Chris Frank, Bland Simpson, Clay Buckner and Jack Herrick

 
Original Blurs Current Blurs

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Bill
Mike
Jim
Tommy
Jack


RCR_fan@hotmail.com
December 3, 1999