Joe Thompson

Some of the most enduring recollections involve the allure of things once placed off-limits, a truth borne out by old-time North Carolina fiddler Joe Thompson and his earliest encounters with his father’s instrument. Well into his eighties he still described sneaking into the farmhouse bedroom as a six-year-old whenever the adults were elsewhere, determined to handle the fiddle despite repeated paternal cautions that the child was too young and would only damage it. Without formal instruction he reproduced the sounds he had observed in Walter’s playing; his mother Rosie quietly restored the room so the boy would avoid punishment. A neighbor who sold seeds eventually presented Thompson with a child-sized fiddle of his own, yet the instrument arrived without strings, prompting the youngster to fashion replacements from a wire screen.

Walter Thompson and his brother John Arch Thompson regularly performed at local square dances whenever farm duties permitted, drawing steady crowds. Joe joined the duo around age seven, still small enough that his feet could not reach the floor while seated. John Arch’s son Odell Thompson supplied banjo accompaniment at the same gatherings. Joe continued appearing at southern dances throughout the 1930s. Although Odell later favored blues guitar, he retained his command of traditional fiddle tunes, and the cousins frequently offered “Hook and Line” and “Cindy Gal” for family and friends. Renewed interest in folk music during the 1970s, encompassing African-American traditions, brought the pair wider attention; they appeared at multiple festivals, performed at Carnegie Hall, and toured Australia. Odell Thompson died in a 1994 automobile accident. Joe later experienced a stroke yet received the 1991 North Carolina Folk Heritage Award alongside his cousin and continued performing with Clyde Davis and Bob Carlin until his death on February 20, 2012, at age 93.