Bill Hicks (right) grins with delight as he observes North Carolina fiddle master Tommy Jarrell at a fiddlers’ convention circa 1972. Hicks, a founding member of the Red Clay Ramblers and the Fuzzy Mountain String Band, passed away recently at age 75. We offer a remembrance, plus music of the bluegrass band Cullen’s Bridge, and much more in this ATBR episode.
Paul Brown collection, courtesy Bill Hicks
Old-time and bluegrass traditions run deep in the foothills and mountains of northwest North Carolina and southwest Virginia. Mickey Galyean & Cullen’s Bridge is an active bluegrass band from the region carrying the torch for the bluegrass sound. It’s named for one of the most highly respected bluegrass banjo pickers of the region – the late Cullen Galyean of Lowgap, NC, who was the father of bandleader Mickey Galyean. The band’s new album, Songs from the Blue Ridge, presents lots of new material, songs and tunes that are energetic, creative, yet clearly within the bluegrass idiom.
Also this week, we remember Bill Hicks, a founding member of the famed Red Clay Ramblers and the Fuzzy Mountain String Band, both outgrowths of the old-time music revival that gathered steam starting in the mid-1960s. Bill Hicks died recently at age 75. We’ll hear some of his music with the Ramblers and the Fuzzies. We’ll also revisit his thoughts on his early career from his interview with ATBR host Paul Brown at Muddy Creek Music Hall in 2017. Hicks was there with his group Craver, Hicks, Watson & Newberry. You may also be interested in this excellent in-depth remembrance of Bill Hicks by Richard Thompson in Bluegrass Today.
We wrap up the show with a great selection of old-time and bluegrass songs and tunes including solo banjo, ballad singing, and gospel.
Playlist
Mickey Galyean & Cullen's Bridge
Songs From The Blue Ridge
Rebel 2. The Convict & The Rose
Mickey Galyean & Cullen's Bridge
Songs From The Blue Ridge
Rebel 3. John Henry
Bobby Harrison & Cullen Galyean
Let Me Fall - Old Time Bluegrass from the Virginia-North Carolina Border
Folkways 4. Heaven's Light Is Shining On Me
The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys
Old Time Camp Meeting Songs
Gusto 5. The Blue Ridge Mountains
Mickey Galyean & Cullen's Bridge
Songs From The Blue Ridge
Rebel 6. Sally Ann
Cullen Galyean
Let Me Fall - Old Time Bluegrass from the Virginia-North Carolina Border
Folkways 7. Break 1 - Soldier's Joy
Cullen Galyean
Let Me Fall - Old Time Bluegrass from the Virginia-North Carolina Border
Folkways 8. Piney Woods
Bill Hicks
The Fuzzy Mountain String Band
Rounder 9. Snowbird On The Ashbank
Fuzzy Mountain String Band
The Fuzzy Mountain String Band
Rounder 10. Interview - Bill Hicks
Bill Hicks
ATBR recording 11. Tying Ten Knots In The Devil's Tail
Craver, Hicks, Watson & Newberry
ATBR recording 12. The Telephone Girl
Red Clay Ramblers
Twisted Laurel
Flying Fish 13. Flying Cloud Cotillion
Red Clay Ramblers
Twisted Laurel
Flying Fish 14. The Falls Of Richmond
Fuzzy Mountain String Band
The Fuzzy Mountain String Band
Rounder 15. Break 2 - Peter Francisco
Fuzzy Mountain String Band
The Fuzzy Mountain String Band
Rounder 16. Things In Life
Jerry Douglas
Restless On The Farm
Sugar Hill 17. Railroad
The Bucking Mules
Smoke Behind The Clouds
The Bucking Mules 18. I'm Never To Marry
Texas Gladden
Texas Gladden
Rounder 19. Josie-O
Adam Hurt
Earth Tones
Ubiquitone 20. One More River
Dale Ann Bradley
Dale Ann Bradley
Pinecastle 21. Hang On
James Bryan & Carl Jones
Two Pictures
Martin Records
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