Raucous hillbilly chamber music by the Hot Club's country cousins! Thompson String Ticklers got together to explore their shared interest in the fast, wild ragtime and slinky, slippery blues of the 1920’s and 30’s, inspired by recordings from the East Texas Serenaders, the Grinnell Giggers, Fiddlin' Doc Roberts and many more. Fiddle, cello, banjo-uke, two guitars and mandolin combine to create an unusual instrumental texture that evokes a long-gone era of bobbed hair, moonshiners, and Model T Fords. Suzy Thompson's new CD, "No Mockingbird", features many tunes of this ilk, and she delves even deeper into the same territory with the String Ticklers. Like so many great bands, this one was the result of an impromtu jam session on a warm summer night that was so much fun that a band was born!

Thompson String Ticklers are: Suzy Thompson, fiddle & vocals (Bluegrass Intentions, Blue Flame Stringband, Any Old Time, California Cajun Orchestra, etc.), Dan Warrick, guitar & vocals (The Earl White Band), Eric Thompson, guitar (Bluegrass Intentions, Blue Flame, Calif. Cajun Orchestra, Black Mountain Boys, etc.), David Murray, mandolin (The Squirrelly Stringband), Dan Kluger, banjo-ukelele (Kjammers) and Kevin Gerzevitz, cello.

Thompson String Ticklers are featured on Suzy Thompson's new live CD, "Stop and Listen" which was released in February on Arhoolie. It was recorded in April, 2004 at the Freight & Salvage. To see the track list, and read the liner notes, visit Stop and Listen web page

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

Sat. January 5, 2008 - "Breaking Up Christmas" Dance with Thompson String Ticklers and Evie Ladin, Humanist Hall (Oakland).

390 27th St., Oakland (between Telegraph and Broadway)
7:30-9 all-ages dance; 9:30-11pm rock on!
$10 adults, $5 5-18, Kids under 5 FREE
SPECIAL FILMING for PBS Special on Charles Ives!
Part of the series KEEPING SCORE hosted by Michael Tilson Thomas
If you would like to be in the footage, honor these wardrobe requests to evoke the old-time feel, but NO ONE will be turned away for lack of costuming:
-NO T shirts, tank tops, logos or sneakers
-WOMEN: full skirts or dresses, cowboy boots or flats
-MEN: slacks, jeans & button down shirts, cowboy boots or generic shoes, vests, scarves, suspenders where possible
From INCA, the Production Company: Ives suggests a Barndance in the music of his Holidays Symphony, and while we’re not pretending that this dance is happening in the early 1900s, we hope the mood of the dance will bring to mind that bygone era. To that end we strongly urge you to dress in “timeless” attire – In our documentary we will feature those dancers who are dressed in classic barn dance clothes.The first square dance of 2008 will be a very special one -- it will be filmed by KQED for an upcoming special on the American composer Charles Ives, and will feature Michael Tilson Thomas! Charles Ives evoked the feel of a country barn dance by quoting some oldtime American dance tunes in some of his pieces, so we will be including some of those exact same tunes!

(above) At 12 Galaxies, the Mission District's stellar new watering hole, Suzy Thompson, holding fiddle, offers Federico Garcia Lorca's "Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter" while paralyzed String Ticklers hear guitar wizard Eric Thompson fire off blistering "mono-mano" runs with a roach, mistaken for a flatpick.

Thanks to Ted Silverman (of the Brewglass Boys) for the photo!

Here's some excerpts of Thompson String Ticklers music, all recorded LIVE at the Freight & Salvage! Click on the tune names in red to hear the tunes:

Drunken Man's Dream

This hillbilly slow drag comes from one of the great eastern Kentucky fiddlers of the 1920's, Doc Roberts.

Kennedy Rag

The Kennedy Rag is named after the town of Kennedy, home of the famous Stripling Brothers of Alabama.

Sweet Lovin' Old Soul

We learned this one from a recording of Sara Martin and Her Jug Band; they were from Louisville, Kentucky where there was a big jug band scene going on at that time, and they were the very first jug band to make records, back in 1923.

Everybody Two Step

This is our version of the Roane County Ramblers' version of Billy Murray's hit song of 1913. To hear the 1913 recording, and some of the most ridiculous lyrics every written, click here: Billy Murray: Everybody Two Step. The Roane County Ramblers were a wild hillbilly band from Virginia during the 1920's, featuring Jimmy McCarroll on fiddle. Another very interesting version of this tune was recorded (as "Todos Ellos") in the early 1930's by a blind fiddler from San Antonio known as El Ciego Melquiades. You can hear some of it here: "Todos Ellas" by El Ciego Melquiades