l-r: Joe Newberry, Mike Craver, Jim Watson, Bill Hicks. Photo by Daniel Coston
Bill Hicks and Jim Watson, along with Tommy Thompson founded the Red Clay Ramblers in 1972. Mike Craver joined in l973 and Jack Herrick joined three years later. For the next decade the Ramblers toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Scandinavia and Africa.
They appeared frequently on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," acted and played in two Off-Broadway shows ("Diamond Studs" and Sam Shepard's "A Lie of the Mind"), and released nine albums on the Flying Fish and Sugar Hill labels. Co-founder and banjo player Tommy Thompson passed away in early 2003, after a long battle with Alzheimer's. Even after leaving the Red Clay Ramblers in the 1980s, Bill Hicks, Jim Watson, and Mike Craver continued to play music together, and these days, they are joined by Joe Newberry on banjo and vocals. Watson, Craver, Hicks, and Newberry delight audiences at venues ranging from intimate halls to stages at festivals at home and abroad. Their shows feature selections from their many individual CDs, plus ensemble songs and fiddle tunes from the classic Red Clay Ramblers repertoire. Independent Weekly columnist Rick Cornell writes, "When Craver, Hicks and Watson get together under the name the Original Red Clay Ramblers, it's truth in advertising on two levels: It is three of the original members (Joe Newberry, a strong clawhammer banjoist and singer, sits in the late Tommy Thompson's seat), plus you'll hear the sound that characterized the Ramblers in their early days."