Mildred Thompson’s clawhammer playing remained strong and rhythmic all of her life, staying true to the style she learned as a young girl growing up on a tobacco farm in Smyth County.  Surrounded by a family who supported her playing as a way to sometimes escape the drudgery of farm life on the rocky soil of the region, Mildred nearly always kept a banjo close by.

            At the age of 22, she married Beverly Thompson, a well-known fiddler in the area who was 13 years her elder.  Together, music became a bedrock in their life each day as Beverly walked from his job at a nearby lumber yard and did the evening chores, then sat down with Mildred to play music.  Sundays soon became their music day, and a parcel of neighbors and tune collectors would gather at their farm on Lick Creek to hear the Thompsons play and dance to their rhythmic style.

            Folklorist and music collector Charles Faurot travelled down to Smyth County on several occasions to record Mildred’s playing and he prominently featured her clawhammer approach on the three record collection of clawhammer playing that he produced for County Records out of Floyd. In addition, some of his recordings of Dorothy and Beverly appeared on the “Legends of Old Time Music” collection also produced by County. In the 1980’s the couple traveled to all of the regional fiddler’s gatherings and did well in contests and were favorites in campground jams.

            Mildred’s playing was featured on several compilations and her winning performance of “Little Brown Jug” was featured on a record put out by the Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention.  Together, they recorded a cassette tape entitled “Goin’ Up Lick Creek,” that demonstrated the couple’s tightknit playing and large repertoire of tunes.

            Mildred’s emphasis on both rhythm and melody rivals the playing of other, more prominent players of the region, including the playing of Matokie Slaughter and Dorothy Rorick. Her place among the clawhammer masters of the region is well earned, as someone who stayed true to the style of Smyth County and the Lick Creek area.