Joe Thompson with Bob Carlin (Monthly Program)

The name of Joe Thompson is hardly well known in music circles and yet in some ways he should be regarded as one of the most historically important American traditional performers active today. Since his re-emergence in the Seventies and introduction to a wider audience, Joe has upheld and represented a tradition of Afro-American country fiddling now all but vanished.Born into a North Carolina farming family that can date its musical heritage to before the Civil War, Joe was playing fiddle by the age of five and as a youngster he and his banjo-playing brother Nate were the regular musicians at house parties and square dances for friends and neighbors, both black and white.Joe Thompson will be appearing with Bob Carlin, who is probably the best known clawhammer style banjoist performing today, as well as an experienced folklore collector and fieldworker. He has taken the distinctive southern banjo style to appreciative audiences all over the US, Canada and Europe. Carlin is a three-time winner of the late Frets Magazine (now known as Acoustic Guitar Magazine) readers poll, and has four Rounder albums and several instruction manuals and videos for the banjo.