Fiddler Joe Thompson and Producer Al DeLory Pass Away

93 year old North Carolina fiddle player Joe Thompson passed away this week. He was influential on the career of the folk group Carolina Chocolate Drops and was awarded an NEA National Heritage Fellowship in 2007, to go with a North Carolina Heritage Award he won in 1991.


"Nobody was too big or too little for Joe to sit down and pick with," said Larry Vellani, a musician from Mebane who often played with Thompson. "He never met a stranger. If you were into music, Joe was into you. Just that straightforward. Everywhere he went, he left kernels of wisdom, good sense and good musical taste."

Read more here.

Producer Al DeLory passed away on February 5th at the age of 82. DeLory produced and arranged Country great Glen Campbell’s hits “Gentle On My Mind,” “Galveston,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Wichita Lineman.” No cause of death has been released.

He also worked with acts the The Beach Boys, Tina Turner and The Righteous Brothers as a studio musician. DeLory released four albums of his own on Capitol Records as well.