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Composed

BMI’s database credits Bill Clifton with 111 published compositions, co-compositions, and arrangements including:

  • “Lonely Heart Blues”
  • “When Autumn Leaves Begin to Fall”
  • “My Nights Are So Lonely”

Early Influences

  • The Carter Family / A. P. Carter
  • Carter Stanley
  • Don Owens

Came to Fame With

  • Bill Clifton and the Dixie Mountain Boys

Performed With

  • Clifton Brothers, 1950
  • Bill Clifton and the Dixie Mountain Boys, 1953-1962
  • First Generation (with Red Rector and Don Stover), 1978-1990
  • Pick of the Crop, ca. late 1980s-to present

By the Way

  • Although known primarily for his singing and guitar work, Bill’s first instrument was an accordion
  • Born William Marburg, Bill adopted the stage name of Bill Clifton because his father didn’t want the family name associated with rural music.
  • Performed locally and on radio during his undergraduate years at the University of Virginia, but never on campus.
  • Bill’s first songbook, issued ca. 1951, contained a forward by famed folk singer Woody Guthrie.
  • Featured in the Cambridge, England publications of Who’s Who in Music: Popular.

Led the Way

  • A pioneer in taking the music to people who had never heard it before, including folk music audiences and during his extended residency and tours in England, Europe, Asia, and Africa
  • Compiled one of the first comprehensive bluegrass-friendly songbooks
  • An important figure in the early career of the Country Gentlemen (he performed and recorded with several members of that group)
  • Organized one of the first all-day bluegrass events, a precursor of the multi-day bluegrass festival
  • Served on the board of the Newport Folk Festival, where he was an advocate for traditional and bluegrass performers
  • IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award, 1992.
  • SPBGMA Preservation Hall of Greats, 1993
  • America’s Old-Time Country Music Hall of Fame, 2008
  • Bluegrass Hall of Fame, 2008.

Composed

BMI’s database credits Bill Clifton with 111 published compositions, co-compositions, and arrangements including:

  • “Lonely Heart Blues”
  • “When Autumn Leaves Begin to Fall”
  • “My Nights Are So Lonely”

Early Influences

  • The Carter Family / A. P. Carter
  • Carter Stanley
  • Don Owens

Came to Fame With

  • Bill Clifton and the Dixie Mountain Boys

Performed With

  • Clifton Brothers, 1950
  • Bill Clifton and the Dixie Mountain Boys, 1953-1962
  • First Generation (with Red Rector and Don Stover), 1978-1990
  • Pick of the Crop, ca. late 1980s-to present

By the Way

  • Although known primarily for his singing and guitar work, Bill’s first instrument was an accordion
  • Born William Marburg, Bill adopted the stage name of Bill Clifton because his father didn’t want the family name associated with rural music.
  • Performed locally and on radio during his undergraduate years at the University of Virginia, but never on campus.
  • Bill’s first songbook, issued ca. 1951, contained a forward by famed folk singer Woody Guthrie.
  • Featured in the Cambridge, England publications of Who’s Who in Music: Popular.

Led the Way

  • A pioneer in taking the music to people who had never heard it before, including folk music audiences and during his extended residency and tours in England, Europe, Asia, and Africa
  • Compiled one of the first comprehensive bluegrass-friendly songbooks
  • An important figure in the early career of the Country Gentlemen (he performed and recorded with several members of that group)
  • Organized one of the first all-day bluegrass events, a precursor of the multi-day bluegrass festival
  • Served on the board of the Newport Folk Festival, where he was an advocate for traditional and bluegrass performers
  • IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award, 1992.
  • SPBGMA Preservation Hall of Greats, 1993
  • America’s Old-Time Country Music Hall of Fame, 2008
  • Bluegrass Hall of Fame, 2008.

From the Archives

From the Archives: Mike Seeger and Bill Clifton at the Coach House Folk Club in England 1971. Photo donated by Ron Petronko.

From the Archives: Bill Clifton playing an autoharp in 1990. Donated by Strictly Country Records.

From the Archives: Bill Clifton and a Bentley in England in 1971. Photo by Ron Petronko.

“A. P. [Carter] was most certainly my most important mentor, and I am hard put to come up with anyone who came close to A. P. in importance to me. But… my friendship with Carter Stanley was extremely important to me [as well].”
Quote by Bill Clifton in e-mail to Gary Reid, July 26, 2011.
“I realized for the first time in my life that the people there [Russia] were very much like Americans in many ways. One way is that they sing songs very much like our songs.”
Quoted by Richard K. Spottswood in “An Interview With Bill Clifton,” Bluegrass Unlimited, May, 1968.
“I don’t think of myself as [a bluegrass artist] at all. I am just a person who sings traditional country music… It just so happened that Johnny Clark played a three-finger style banjo. If he had played old-time banjo, we probably would have ended up being called old-time musicians.”
Quoted by Rienk Janssen in notes to Bill Clifton – Around the World to Poor Valley, Bear Family BCD-16425, 2001.
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