Big Medicine: Band Bios

"Experienced players who have learned the music, its shapes, colors, and forms, and, not being content to just play it, have taken these shapes and colors to form their own music within the genre...They nail the fiddle tunes, they sing and play a wide range of songs, and do it all equally well." Bob Buckingham, The Old-TIme Herald

The Band Members

Members of Big Medicine are some of the best-known and most admired musicians in the old-time music community:
Kenny Jackson, Jim Collier, Joe Newberry, and Bobb Head.

These folks have diligently learned by ear and by heart at the wellspring of old-time music, from elder masters, relatives and friends, field recordings, and old 78 rpm records of "hillbilly" music. Going beyond just being "revivalists", their music comes out sounding like nobody but Big Medicine, whether playing timeless traditional material or a newly composed song or tune. Deeply rooted, musically compelling, and from the heart.

Kenny Jackson is best known for his traditional old-time fiddling, but he's a compelling singer, banjo player and guitarist as well. Kenny's earliest inspiration was the tradition of homemade music and singing that often took place when the family gathered at his grandparents' Kentucky home place. Influenced by elder masters and younger contemporaries, archival field recordings, and old commercial records of string band music, he pursued old-time music with a passion. The result is that Kenny has become a master in his own right, distinctive in his own music while deeply rooted in traditional sources. Kenny has been a part of one outstanding string band after another— touring in the mid-80s with Leftwich, Higginbotham, and Jackson, co-founding The Rhythm Rats in 1988, and Big Medicine in 1999. Kenny grew up in southern Indiana, but has lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina since 1998.
Top
Return to main band page

Jim Collier has been playing old-time and bluegrass music since high school days in Raleigh, N.C. Influenced early on by Appalachian musicians such as Roscoe Holcomb and Gaither Carlton, he carries a rich tradition of tunes and songs, ranging from hard-driving to sensitive and mournful. Jim is a superb rhythm guitar player and mandolinist, a knock-down banjo player, fiddler, and a great singer. Along with Joe, he was also member of the Tarheel Hotshots, one of the finest North Carolina old-time bands of the 1990s. Jim lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Top
Return to main band page

Joe Newberry is a gifted and prize-winning banjo player, guitarist and singer. A Missouri native, Joe contributes the sensibilities of the traditional music from that regionto the Big Medicine sound. He is also is well known for combining traditional music and narrative theater such as "Good Ol' Girls", a play based on the work of Lee Smith, Jill McCorkle, Marshall Chapman, and Matraca Berg. He has served as program director for Folk Music Week at Pinewoods Music and Dance Camp and often teaches banjo and traditional singing at music camps around the country. He also can be heard playing banjo and singing with Bill Hicks, Mike Craver, and Jim Watson - original members of the Red Clay Ramblers. Joe left his Missouri home a couple of decades ago to settle in North Carolina, and now lives in Durham.
Top
Return to main band page

photogrpah by Ken Jackson Our newest member, Bobb Head lays down the bass line and shares vocal harmony duties with Big Medicine, and every now and then is induced to produce some fine banjo or guitar picking. When he's not playing with Big Medicine, you can see him with the Stillhouse Bottom Band; with Dueling Shoes, a percussive dance ensemble; and the Deep Phat Friars, a irreverant southern-fried contra band. He has also performed with a number of pickup bands. Before moving to North Carolina, he played with the Privy Tippers in Tucson and, before that, with the Self-Righteous Brothers in Houston.
Top
Return to main band page