2007 NEA National Heritage Fellow Joe Thompson Mebane, NC African American string band musician

Joe Thompson has played fiddle music in his home community in the Piedmont region of North Carolina for more than 80 years.  The tradition, representing some of the earliest string band instrumentation on the continent, melds African and Anglo instrumentation and styles.  Joe's father, John Arch Thompson and his brother, Walter, were sought after by African American and Anglo neighbors to provide music for local square dances.  As soon as Joe took up the fiddle, he and his brother, Nate, and their cousin, Odell, were in demand for local house parties.  Most of the tunes they learned have today become standards for Southern fiddlers and banjo players, but some were unique to the African American repertoire.  Joe also punctuates his performance with sung verses and square dance calls, many of which are rarely heard today.  Joe and his cousin Odell have performed at Carnegie Hall, as well as at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, the National Folk Festival, and the International Music Festival in Brisbane, Australia.  Their unique style was featured in Alan Lomax's American Patchwork film series.  After Odell's death in 1994, Joe considered giving up music but he began playing publicly again with younger musicians in the region.  In 1999, Rounder Records released Joe Thompson: Family Tradition focusing exclusively on his unique musical repertoire.

 
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NEA Heritage Fellows
1982-2012: 
BY YEAR | ALPHA