Kleptograss

Eric Thompson took up the guitar as a teenager in Palo Alto, California in the early 1960’s, at a time when very few folk guitarists were playing more than basic rhythm guitar. Among his earliest bands were the Black Mountain Boys (with Jerry Garcia and David Nelson) and Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions. He quickly became nationally known as an exceptional lead flatpicker, winning the World Championship Cup at Union Grove, North Carolina with the New York Ramblers (which also included David Grisman and Winnie Winston). During the 1970’s, Eric continued to play old-time music and can be heard with the Spare Change Boys on the recently released Folkways CD, “Classic Oldtime Music”. He also took up the tenor banjo, organized the Graineog Celidh Band around two master musicians from County Clare, Joe Cooley and Kevin Keegan. Eric’s first solo LP, “Bluegrass Guitar”, featured an all-star band including David Grisman and Tony Rice, and was released in 1979 on Kicking Mule. In the 1980’s Eric toured extensively nationwide and abroad with the Blue Flame Stringband (with Kate Brislin, Alan Senauke, and Suzy Thompson) and the Backwoods Band, recording with both bands. More recently he has recorded with the Todalo Shakers and of course with the Bluegrass Intentions on their debut CD, “Old As Dirt”. Eric’s new Kleptograss CD is out and is getting lots of airplay here in the Bay Area! Eric recorded with Jody Stecher, Scott Nygaard, Paul Shelasky and Paul Knight, and rounded out the CD with tracks he recorded some years back with Jody and Suzy (which were never released.)