Thumbs Carllile has been played on NTS in shows including The Windmills of Your Mind w/ Taylor Rowley, featured first on 16 October 2024. Songs played include Wounded Knee.

Kenneth Ray "Thumbs" Carllile was an innovative guitar player and songwriter. The son of an impoverished Illinois tenant farmer, he began playing music at the age of eight after his sister Evelyn won a dobro for selling balm. He used the new instrument so much that his irritated sister hid the steel bar, but the resourceful young man began using his thumbs to practice. When his father gave him a Silvertone guitar, Carllile's thumbs were too short…