What are the odds of two former school captains from Bega Primary School finding themselves playing in the same ACT-based band?
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That is the story behind the very successful song writing partnership between Hugh Watson and Matthew Herbert, of Willie and the Correspondents, which is playing at the Cobargo Folk Festival in early March.
The band, from Hall Village in the ACT, formed in 1994 when Mr Watson was playing a guitar and Philip Williams started playing along on blues harp.
They formed a band with some other musicians and called themselves West Texas Crude, playing mainly covers.
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Mr Herbert joined the band in 2000 as lead guitarist and vocalist and discovered that Mr Watson, like himself, was born in Bega.
Their partnership turned West Texas Crude from a covers band to a country/folk/roots band playing original songs.
Helped raise more than $300,000
They live two doors apart in Hall, making it easy for Mr Watson to take a new set of lyrics to Mr Herbert to write the music.
They have written hundreds of songs, recorded two albums (as West Texas Crude) and are not slowing down.
Their gigs included the National Folk Festival, Majors Creek Festival, Kiama Folk Festival, the Tathra Bushfire Relief Concert, the Hayrunners Ball for Drought Relief and numerous appearances at Smiths Original in Civic and at the Tathra Hotel.
They have helped raise more than $300,000 since they first took to the stage and the band's song, Sons of the Somme, was accepted in the National Collection of the Australia War Memorial in 2012.
An outlet for high pressure jobs
In 2017 they changed their name to Willie and the Correspondents with a nod to Willie Nelson and to the background of several band members.
Rhythm guitarist and vocalist Mr Watson was private secretary to former Labor Cabinet Minister the late Susan Ryan.
Blues harp player and vocalist Mr Williams was chief foreign correspondent for the ABC and is well-known to south coast residents for his constant presence during the Black Summer bushfires.
Drummer Greg Turnbull was press secretary to both Paul Keating and Kim Beazley.
Mr Watson said the band works because they have been friends for years and know what it is like to work in high-pressure jobs and need to have an outlet.
"Matthew and I just keep churning out songs," Mr Watson said.
"We're almost local too as Matthew has a house in Tathra and I have one in Merimbula," Mr Watson said.
More information on the Cobargo Folk Festival which runs from March 3-5, can be found here.
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