The Capers

The Capers were a London, Ontario nightclub and touring band whose history stretched from the early 1960s rhythm and blues circuit into a series of cross-border recordings and later country-leaning phases under Ronnie Fray’s name. The group appears to have developed out of the earlier Paul London & The Capers, a band that included singer Paul London, guitarist Gery Risser, and organist Garth Hudson before Hudson moved on to Ronnie Hawkins’ Hawks. After that transition, vocalist and guitarist Ronnie Fray and drummer Clay Highley became central to the reconstituted Capers lineup.

Fray had already been active around London, first with The Middlesex Ramblers and then with his own group, The Belaires, before joining The Capers. The Capers’ reorganized lineup drew from London’s strong early-1960s club-band network and soon added Jerry Penfound, another Ronnie Hawkins alumnus who played organ and saxophone. Fray later described the move with humour, saying the band had effectively “swapped keyboard/sax players,” with Hudson leaving for Hawkins and Penfound coming in from Hawkins’ circle.

The Capers’ first road engagement with Fray came in January 1961 in Sudbury, Ontario. From there, the group became a heavily booked touring act, working across Southern Ontario, Northern Ontario, Michigan, Ohio, and well beyond. Much of their work was handled through Jerry Verga of the Varjac entertainment agency in Detroit, who kept the group on the road for years. Fray later remembered the band being booked almost continuously, with engagements ranging from Tokyo to Atlantic City, Detroit to Val-d’Or, Youngstown to Nashville, and many points in between.

On record, The Capers were usually presented as a versatile showband rather than a strictly rock and roll group. Their repertoire covered rhythm and blues, soul, pop standards, country, novelty material, folk, jazz-flavoured nightclub numbers, and dramatic vocal showcases. This flexibility was central to their appeal: they were built for the hotel, lounge, and nightclub circuit, where a band had to hold a room with variety, humour, musicianship, and strong vocals.

The group’s first album, Introducing The Versatile Capers, was recorded in April 1963 at United Sound Systems in Detroit, located near Motown’s own operations. The album introduced the group’s wide-ranging approach and included material such as ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and ‘The Yodelling Song’. Their early recording history also included WAM singles such as ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ backed with ‘I’m Walking the Dog’ and ‘No Peace Of Mind’ backed with ‘Iced Tea’, along with the WAM LP The Versatile Capers.

By 1966, the group had released Get Caperized on Jeree Records of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. That album featured Ronnie Fray on guitar and lead vocals, Tommy Dean on bass, tenor saxophone, and vocals, Clay Highley on drums, and Michael Dean on organ, piano, and vocals. Its track selection again showed the group’s broad working-band range, from ‘Exodus’, ‘Cara Mia’, and ‘People’ to ‘Country Boy’, ‘Sawmill’, ‘Bo Diddly’, ‘Crying Time’, and ‘You Taught Me To Yodel’. The liner notes emphasized the group’s “versatility,” singling out Fray’s dramatic lead voice, Tommy Dean’s country feature, Highley’s drumming and vocal turn on ‘Sawmill’, and Michael Dean’s keyboard work and stage presence.

As personnel shifted, the band’s identity increasingly centred around Ronnie Fray. By the late 1960s, the act was working as Ronnie Fray Capers, a trio built around Fray and longtime drummer Clay Highley, with Alan “Clark” Eakin on bass. This lineup recorded the album Why Not? for Detroit’s Sound Records, moving more clearly into country and folk-country material while still retaining the broad showband instincts that had defined The Capers’ earlier years.

The Capers’ story sits squarely within the world of Canadian acts that worked constantly across the border in the 1960s, especially through the Ontario–Michigan–Ohio circuit. They were not a garage band in the narrow sense, nor simply a country act or lounge group, but a professional working band shaped by the demands of live performance. Their recordings capture a Canadian club-band culture where musicians were expected to sing, entertain, shift styles quickly, and survive long stretches on the road. Ronnie Fray’s later career would carry the name forward, but The Capers themselves remain an important example of the highly adaptable Southern Ontario touring bands that connected London, Detroit, Youngstown, Beaver Falls, and the wider North American nightclub network.

-Robert Williston