Craig Roberts
The Man Behind The Music

In last month's Blues News, I wrote a review of Jim Hermel's new CD called 'Highway To Ride'. So impressed was I by this brilliant album, and knowing that Jim didn't write the songs, I found myself wondering about the author of these great tunes. Jim told me that a guy by the name of Craig Roberts had written all of the album's 14 songs, and I was intrigued by the fact that there were a myriad of styles and influences on the album. Out of the blue one day, Roberts phoned me to thank me for my review, and the following is the story of several affable conversations on the phone. After a little initial reluctance, Craig finally agreed to give me his story, and the story of how 'Highway To Ride' came to be.

A newspaper report from 1971 hailed Craig Roberts as a 'Brilliant song-writer', and states that "Roberts has been unknown for too long". That was 28 years ago, and sad to say, Craig is still largely unknown but his profile is definitely on the rise. Beginning his musical career as a child, he was playing guitar in a 'Shadows' cover band by the time he was a teenager. Attending university from 1964 - 1968, Craig gained his degree and became a pharmacist, and it was at this time he began writing songs, mainly to compensate for his father's wishes against being in a band while studying. Influenced at this time by The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Animals, he wrote a blues tune called 'Leave Myself To Me', for Adelaide pop/blues band The Southern Gentlemen. The song was recorded by Max Pepper's studio and rose to the middle of 5AD's Top 40.

Finishing university Craig joined a Mamas and Papas type band 'Garden', known for their harmonies and well-written songs. This band taught him a lot, and it was about this time he added Jimi Hendrix, Joe South, The Byrds, Cream and Johnnie Winter to his influences. Writing prolificly, he decided to record his own demo album, and once again Max Pepper's studio was chosen as the preferred studio to record a selection of crossover music ranging in style from folk music to the heavier styles of Cream. Max Pepper was so impressed by Craig's lyrics, he offered the young song-writer work writing advertising jingles, and over the next few years Craig wrote and played guitar on hundreds of jingles.

Vince Lovegrove recorded another Roberts tune 'Rented Room Blues', which enjoyed moderate success, once more making it into mid-chart position. In 1970, 'Garden' split and in 1971, Craig formed country rock group 'Honest John' which counted amongst it's members John Bywaters who had returned to Adelaide in 1971 following the break-up of the 'Twilights'. Bywaters was also used by Craig on all of his early recordings. More influences were added to the Craig Roberts melting pot around this time as he began to play Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson songs. Gordon Lightfoot released 'If You Could Read My Mind', and this had a profound impact on Craig as he explains;

"I had written songs in the past which were written from the heart, but then I realised that Lightfoot had gone all the way to baring his soul, and as I bought all of his albums, I've come to realise that this is consistently like 'Early Morning Rain'.....all written from the heart.....and in the first person, that's the way Dylan and others have been writing for years, and that's the way my writing has continued today".

Despite recording and releasing two singles (once again using Max Pepper), and a television appearance, commercial success continued to elude Roberts, so he split from 'Honest John' and went overseas, to the UK, Canada, and to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was fortunate enough to meet his idol Gordon Lightfoot. Finally returning to Australia, he began playing around Adelaide's coffee lounges in 1972 - '73 and wrote lots of songs. it was then that Craig began adding Australian content to his lyrics. Gradually lessening his playing over the next few years but continuing to write, in 1975, ex-folkie and country singer Mike Quimby recorded ten Roberts tunes over two albums.

Leap forward several years during which Craig continued to record jingles for Max Pepper until Max leased off the studio. Craig had now been listening to groups like the Eagles from which he drew some influence, and his writing continued unabated. In the early 90's he formed The Electric Blues Band with Chris Ford-Davies, but Ford-Davies soon quit to return to acoustic playing. Craig took brush-up guitar lessons from Chris Finnen, and played irregularly at jam nights at the Elizabeth Downs Hotel. It was around this time that Craig met Jim Hermel, and in 1996, broached the subject of recording a full length album. This project finally bore fruit when in May 1999, the CD 'Highway To Ride' was completed. Craig explains how he chose Jim;

"Long before the decimation of live entertainment venues by poker machines and legislation, I became interested in Jim through a mutual friend Neil Conaghty, who was playing bass in his band at the time, though I had been aware of him for nearly 30 years. I used to go to the likes of the White Horse Inn, the Semaphore Hotel and The Hilton on South Road to watch and hear Jim play and to soak up the aura. It was always the 'outlaw aspect'...the hair, the baseball caps, his overall appearance, the many different guitars he played, and the music itself that appealed to me. Sometime around early 1996, I sold him a blonde, 1968 Fender Telecaster for $1200:00 - what it owed me - although it was worth considerably more. This was the starting point of our on-going relationship. In September 1996 at the Adelaide show, I heard a live band start up a couple of hundred yards away in the log chopping / pig racing area, so with wife in tow and young son in a pram, I threaded my way through the crowds to discover the source of this great music with it's blistering guitar solos, and it was Jim, playing on the old Tele. I rang him at home that night to offer some positive feedback on just how good I thought he sounded, and my comments were received with great appreciation. Jump forward to September 1997. Same venue, and once again I was knocked out by what I was hearing. I was sitting on a pile of songs which I had never really done anything with so I asked Jim how long it had been since he'd recorded and the answer was 1984. So over subsequent weeks and months we discussed the idea of doing something with the songs. I even used to play demos of some of them to Jim over the phone. One hot summer Saturday in 1998, while sitting on the tall verandah of an old home built in 1880 in the shadow of Mount Lofty and with a view all the way to Mount Barker on the eastern horizon, I ran about 10 songs past Jim which I thought suited him, and which he accepted without quibble. Over the next few months we put down a few rough demos of the songs for Jim to learn. The project forced me to finish one tune 'Slow Driver' which I had started years before but never completed. the project, together with the presence and being of Jim Hermel inspired me to write another new song 'Outback Of My Mind' in March 1999. In April we began rehearsing with Phil Cunneen, who was then appointed as Producer for the album, and then came two weeks of recording sessions in early May. One thing amazed me as I was phoning the session players I wanted to use on the recordings, and that was that to a man they all jumped at the chance to work with Jim - such is his reputation. 'Railroad Woman' was originally held back as a stand-by track, but something went wrong or we were short of time, and the song is now regarded by some, as the stand-out track on the CD. It certainly has turned out as a blues classic with Jim's harmonica and Les Karski's guitar solos. The album was completed and ready just one day before Jim had to appear at the Riverland Country Music Festival at Renmark in June. At the end of the day, and through the close contact I've had with Jim over the last six months, I've come to the conclusion that even if we never sold one CD I've achieved one thing, a friendship, and that justifies everything we went through".

Craig Roberts owns and operates the Craig Roberts Chemist on Semaphore Road in Semaphore. At the time of writing, it is one of the only two places where you can pick up a copy of Highway To Ride. The CD is being retailed for the ridiculously low price of $24:95, so in the immortal words of Molly Meldrum, do yourself a favour, and buy yourself this wonderful CD.