Obit: Tommy Thompson passes

Subject: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: Dani
Date: 25 Jan 03 - 04:24 PM

I am by no means qualified to write an obituary, and wouldn't presume. But I thought fans of the Red Clay Ramblers would like to know that Tommy died this morning. It's a sad story, his is, and as much as I don't know about what comes after, this is a man who deserves whatever peace and light he might come to.

Dani

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 25 Jan 03 - 04:34 PM

Tommy was one of my oldest friends in the business. He was a consumate performing artist, an incredibly knowledgeable music historian, and an astoundingly creative composer/arranger. His presence and participation contributed much to the survival and popularity of old-time music among so many folks. Well done, Tommy.

Bill Foster

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 25 Jan 03 - 06:31 PM

HOT BUTTERED RUM
(c)Tommy Thompson (BMI)

When chimney smoke hangs still and low
Across the stubble-fields of snow
When angry skys reach down to seize
The sorry blackened bones of trees
In the dead of winter
When the silent snow birds come
You're my sweet maple sugar, honey,
Hot buttered rum

When dreary Christmas decorations
Line the streets and filling stations
And dime store centers can't disguise
Their empty heads and empty eyes
In the dead of winter when
The tinsel angels come
You're my sweet maple sugar, honey,
Hot buttered rum

When gloves boots and woolen parkas
Bring cold comfort to the heart
And bitter memories freeze the tongue
And songs of love are left unsung
In the dead of winter when,
If springtime never comes
You're my sweet maple sugar, honey,
Hot buttered rum


Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: Stewie
Date: 25 Jan 03 - 09:26 PM

A fine musician, singer and songwriter. Vale to the founder of the Ramblers who were among the best old-timey/roots groups - talented, perceptive and immensely enjoyable.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Jan 03 - 11:23 PM

http://redclayramblers.tripod.com/index.htm

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: RangerSteve
Date: 26 Jan 03 - 07:05 AM

The albums by the Fuzzy Mt. Stringband were a great source of old time tunes when I was too young or poor to travel to festivals down south. Thanks, Tommy.    Steve

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: Art Thieme
Date: 26 Jan 03 - 02:39 PM

I am with Bill Foster. Tommy was a great and unique artist--as were all the Ramblers. After his long illness,I suspect he needed the peace he will now get.

Art

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: BanjoRay
Date: 26 Jan 03 - 07:57 PM

A superb guy who didn't deserve the suffering of his last few years. He improved my life and the lives of many others
Ray

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: GUEST,Janie (where's my cookie)
Date: 26 Jan 03 - 09:54 PM

The angels are surely singing him in through the pearly gates.

Janie

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Jan 03 - 10:03 PM

Well.....A great performer, musician, and all of those things as well as being that little bit of that "extra special" which he used so well.......Old Time music will be in his debt for many years thanks to his contributions. Nice to hear from Bill Foster on this.....Got a story for us Bill?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: Janie
Date: 26 Jan 03 - 10:04 PM

WUNC's "Back Porch Music" is starting a tribute show to Tommy right about now. You can listen on your computer from www.wunc.org.

Janie

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: open mike
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 12:02 AM

I sent him a thank you card, with a picture of a kitten curled
up an a piano key board recently. Hie daughter maintained a web
site with stories and pictures. He had been in an Alzheimer's
ward for some time, and I am sure she would like to see this
thread, and see the imense respect and care that his fellow
musicians have for him. Sory to hear. I sang Hot Buttered Rum
this weekend with fond thoughts of him. My favorite holiday/
winter song!! May he find peace.

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: GUEST,JudyR
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 01:25 AM

It was my pleasure to meet Tommy in New York back during the run of "Diamond Studs," in 1975, when I tried out for the show (and never made it!). I was immediately attracted to his warmth and down=to-earth charm. I saw him again in 1979 and we got together when he was out in California for a show. I have not seen him since, but his vision of that place of old rusty iron bridges and shady ravines, where the twisted laurel grows (one of my favorite songs of all time) still warms my heart.

Just across the Blue Ridge where the high meadows lay
and the galax spreads through the new-mown hay
there's a rusty iron bridge 'cross a shady ravine
where the hard road ends and turns to clay.
With a suitcase in his hand, a lonesome boy stands
gazing at the river slidin' by beneath his feet,
but the dark water springs from the black rocks and flows
out of sight where the twisted laurel grows."

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: open mike
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 04:50 PM

does any one know what galax is?

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 06:21 PM

I met Tommy and the other Ramblers during the Diamond Studs days in New York as well. They came to a lot of Irish music sessions, we got to know each and had a great time.

I saw the play and loved it.

Tommy was a terrific guy... they all were.

Dan Milner

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: Dani
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 08:49 PM

Galax is a plant, grows in the Eastern U.S., but it's mainly known as a town in Virginia. I think that's where they hold a big fiddling convention each year?

Dani

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 01:55 PM

I miss Tommy-- when I was going to see the Red Clay Ramblers i never had the courage to introduce myself; now I'm sorry.
Thread Creep: galax is a plant with a large spade-shaped leaf and a milky sap which was even looked at as a source of an alternative to natural rubber during WWII when we had been cut off from natural rubber. Whoever named it knew his Latin: galax= milky (hence the name for our galaxy)
and yes, there is that BIG fiddler's convention every year in Galax VA (on the border between Grayson and Carroll counties) on the week leading up to the 2nd Saturday in August; this year August 4-9. We're trying to decide whether or not to go.

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 06:47 PM

Hello, 'Spaw--

I have a good many stories about Tommy. We first met when Tommy lived in Birmingham. It was at a fiddler's convention, I believe, at the Birmingham Civic Center. I was deep into melodic three-finger picking, playing note-for-note fiddle tunes on the five-string. He was, to me, the consummate clawhammer player. We pulled up a couple of chairs facing each other, sitting nearly knee to knee, and had a banjo shoot-out, playing fiddle tunes together for over an hour, until our fretting fingers looked like turtle's feet. That was probably 25 years ago. Subsequently, the Ramblers and the Foster Family became close friends. We played many festivals together, and we always parked our van, (Big Hannah) next to theirs (the Beefalo Special), and spent a lot of time together --particular at a really great music festival called Horsepens 40 every May and October. Of all the really great musical memories I have from 40 years of pickin', many of the very best ones feature Tommy. When a friend called me toe morning Tommy died, My feeling was exactly that of Art: I was glad he had gotten the peace he deserved.
I don't normally post a thread this long, but you touched a very special chord when you asked about stories.

Bill Foster

Subject: RE: Obit: Tommy Thompson passes
From: Art Thieme
Date: 30 Jan 03 - 07:05 PM

Very nice, Bill. I wish you and Tommy had recorded that aession. I can almost hear what the 2 banjo styles might've sounded like improvising and meshing. I think I first heard you and the family in Winfield at the festival. That was where Tommy and I shared a pint of Scotch out of a paper bag walking around the festival grounds one night. Tommy's daughter, Jessie Eustace, asked a longish while ago, in Sing Out magazine, for his old music pals to write to Tommy with remembrances of things done along the way. She thought it might bring some lost memories back to him. I did write to Tommy at the nursing home telling him about my memories of that night-----how we were both amazed by Clair Lynch's voice. Jesse found that letter at the home. It had been saved so Tommy could re-read it and hold onto those times. Sadly, it made me think of the lines in his song "Twisted Laurel" about the fellow trying to "call memories back". ---- I'm misting up right now thinking back on it.

I do hope you and the family are well.

Art Thieme