North Carolina's Tony Award-winning String Band

"A great American band!" -- Sam Shepard

"Wonderful!" -- Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion

"The house band of North Carolina!"  -- Martin Anderson, WNCW

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, April 12th, 2011

“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, June 28th, 2010

More quotes...

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"Old North State", the Album

Old North State - The Red Clay Ramblers

In stock and shipping, an all new studio recording of songs and tunes with a Tar Heel taste!

Old North State

More info - order here

Preview  North Carolina Toast and Breakdown: 

Concert, Festival and Stage: Please Join Us!

Please join us at one of these events in 2012-2013; also noted are events of individual Red Clay Ramblers in other settings:

April 21st, 2012:  The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert, Shakori Hills Music Festival, Chatham County, NC, 4:30-6:00 p.m. on the Grove Stage

May 12th-13th, 2012:  The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert, LEAF (Lake Eden Arts Festival), Black Mountain, NC, Saturday May 12th LAKESIDE 2:00-3:15 p.m. and Sunday May 13th EDEN HALL 4:45-5:45 p.m.

June 16th, 2012:  The Shamrockers (Clay Buckner, Chris Frank, Jack Herrick, Rob Ladd), Asheville, NC

July 12-15, 2012:  Jack Herrick performing his and Tommy Thompson's original score in "Ear Rings," the musical based on Lee Smith's novel "Oral History" -- Theater at Lime Kiln, Lexington, Virginia -- shows at 7:30 p.m. -- see:  theateratlimekiln.org

August 19th, 2012:    The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Philadelphia, PA 

Sept. 7th, 2012:  The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert, WUNC-FM "Back Porch Music Series," American Tobacco Campus, Durham, NC

Sept. 13th, 2012:  Bland Simpson reading from his new nonfiction novel, "Two Captains from Carolina"; Friends of the Library, Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill campus, 5 p.m.

Sept. 21st, 2012:   The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert, Stuart's Opera House, Nelsonville, Ohio

Sept. 22nd, 2012:  The Red Clay Ramblers in Concert, Kent State Folk Festival, Kent, Ohio, 8 p.m.

Sept. 28/29, 2012: TENTATIVE:  Coastal Cohorts in "King Mackerel"; Vineyard Playhouse, Martha's Vineyard, MA

Oct. 25th, 2012:    Bland Simpson reading from his new nonfiction novel, "Two Captains from Carolina"; Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, NC, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 1st, 2012:  Bland Simpson, "Two Captains" booksigning, Waterfowl Weekend, Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center, Harkers Island, NC, daytime

April 18th-21st, 2013: The Red Clay Ramblers in "Carolina Jamboree" -- Raleigh (NC) Memorial Auditorium;

April 27th, 2013: The Red Clay Ramblers in "Carolina Jamboree" -- Durham (NC) Performing Arts Center [DPAC];