Round Mountain Girls

Artist Information

Biography

Blistering performances at this year’s Bluesfest in Byron Bay has cemented Round Mountain Girls into Australian musicology and gained them the reputation as one of Australia’s most exciting festival acts. Performing on the Crossroads stage, RMG ripped through their current repertoire of songs from their latest album, One Step Closer. Round Mountain Girls then delighted audience members by cracking out the greatest version of Wolfmother’s Joker and the Thief you’ll ever hear!

Rusty Thorpe: ‘The Round Mountain Girls do have an insanely infectious bunch of songs - as insane as the mix of characters in the band - and it’s impossible not to be caught up in their infectious celt-country blend of music. I defy you to sit still !!’, RUSTY THORPE 2012. Bluesfest Touring and Marketing Manager.


The last 2 years has been an exhilarating trip for the Round Mountain Girls and their ever-growing band of followers. Proudly independent, the Round Mountain Girls have performed at some of Australia’s largest and coolest festivals. Byron Bay’s Blues Festival, Woodford Folk Fest, Caloundra’s Music Festival, Gympie Muster, Central Coast Country Music Festival, Neurum Creek Folk Fest, Gold Coast Acoustics, Wintermoon Festival, Urban Country Music Festival, Mullum Music and Tamworth’s Country Music Festival.

Fiddler Rabbit Robinson and RMG took out “Best Band Featuring A Fiddle Player” at the 2012 Golden Fiddle Awards in Tamworth. Robinson then went on to win the “Lifetime Achievement” award for services to fiddledom and also “Best Fiddle Teacher”. Round Mountain Girls have always known it but now they can safely say they have the “best fiddle player in Australia” in their band!!!

The excitement of a Round Mountain Girls live show is why this band is special. There are lots of instrument changes, different sounds and personalities, ebbs and flows and they simply exude a positive energy. They are a feel good band that make people want to dance and smile. They look and smell like a bluegrass band. They harmonise. They play fiddles, mandolins, banjos and acoustic guitars…. but don’t be fooled – Round Mountain Girls are actually a rock band and anyone who has witnesses RMG at full bore will feel the need to repeat the dose.

One Step Closer is the bands current album. It is uplifting by nature and highlights the band’s musicianship and songwriting talents. Featured on the album are Four-part Harmonies, Banjo, Fiddle, Acoustic Guitars, Mandolin, Didgeridoo, a bucket-load of percussive instruments, Bass and Drums. One Step Closer has received national air-play through ABC National radio, Country Music Channel, RAGE and Channel 10’s Landed music.

In March 2012 RMG released an EP, aptly titled “Cover Girls” which features their most requested cover songs (click the audio tab) and a disturbing photo of the lads in bikinis.

This is one of the most brilliant, interesting and dynamic bands on the festival circuit at the moment. Folk On!

Instrumentation

Rabbit Robinson - Fiddle/Vocals, Tin-whistle
Chris Eaton - Banjo, Guitar, & Vocals
Rex Carter - Drums & Percussions
Willy B - Bass
Chris Brooker - Vocals, Guitar, mandolin

Discography

Cover Girls (2012) - EP

One Step Closer (2011)- second album.

White Rum - (2008) - first album

Official Website

http://www.roundmountaingirls.com

Links

• Facebook
• RMG Promo
• Round Mountain Girls Youtube Channel

Audio

• 03 Faith
  Listen  
• Joker and The Thief - Round Mountain Girls cover Wolfmother
  Listen  
• 04 Move On
  Listen  
• Walk Like An Egyptian - Round Mountain Girls cover The Bangles
  Listen  
• 02 Mobile Love
  Listen  
• 05 One Step Closer
  Listen  
• Drowsy Maggie/Raggle Taggle
  Listen  
• 01 Chop Me Down
  Listen  
• 10 Secret Mens Business
  Listen  

Lyrics

• FAITH
• MOVE ON
• ONE STEP CLOSER
• CHOP ME DOWN
• SECRET MENS BUSINESS
• Raggle Taggle Gypsy/Drowsy Maggie
• MOBILE LOVE

Video

FAITH - Round Mountain Girls

Photo Gallery

Press

• Rusty Thorpe. Bluesfest 2012. Touring and Marketing Manager. Review. [+ Show ]
  

  ‘Any band that can get a mainstage tent crowd doing the dosey-doh at lunchtime gets my vote !! The...
  ‘Any band that can get a mainstage tent crowd doing the dosey-doh at lunchtime gets my vote !! The Round Mountain Girls do have an insanely infectious bunch of songs - as insane as the mix of characters in the band - and it’s impossible not to be caught up in their infectious celt-country blend of music.’
  ‘I defy you to sit still !!’
  
  
  

• Bob Newman. CEO Cooly Rocks On! 2012. [+ Show ]
  

  These Girls were the surprise packet of Cooly Rocks On 2011. Firstly as we very quickly found out...These Girls were the surprise packet of Cooly Rocks On 2011.
  
  Firstly as we very quickly found out they were not girls after all but five guys from Northern NSW!!
  
  And to top it off they did not play Rock n Roll, but who cared as they smashed out their own style of music at the Coolangatta Hotel all the hard core Rockabilly & Rock N Roll fans loved them and all agreed the were the find of the festival.
  
  They’re back in 2012 bigger and badder than ever!!!!!
  
  

• The Round Mountain Girls - LIVE REVIEW. [+ Show ]
  

  What makes a band outstanding? Is it passion for making and creating music? Is it a great line...
  
  
  What makes a band outstanding? Is it passion for making and creating music? Is it a great line-up of musicians who all, clearly, love what they are doing and are very very, very accomplished at it? I’ve often wondered and pondered on this musical conundrum.
  Recently I had the great pleasure to witness a band that plays music that you think you know; are totally familiar with, however have not heard many of the songs before. The sort of music you will go and buy because you just know you’re going to love it and therefore don’t mind parting with the meagre bucks it costs to “have one of their original CD’s”.
  The Round Mountain Girls (not a woman amongst them) are such a band. Their new CD One Step Closer actually brings you one step closer to loving everything that is melodic, dance-worthy (try and not dance to this music – I was there – and OMG did I kick up a storm) and did I mention lyrical, too?
  Five musicians (Rex Carter, Chris Brooker, Chris Eaton, Rabbit Robinson and Chris Willoughby) play like they are on fire: a veritable carnival all by themselves and you just have to be part of it. With a fractious Fiddle; burgeoning Banjo; Guitars-a-go-go with acoustics to die for; percussion-a-plenty including Conga, tin whistle, tambourine and… whatever; devil on the Drums and beautiful, bountiful Bass.
  If you get a chance to see these energetic, Irishy, knee-slappin’ and heel-kickin’ musicians-with-a-twist, then don’t be tardy, join the party………………
  

• Comin' 'Round The Mountain - The Round Mountain Girls' second record is One Step Closer in title and accomplishment [+ Show ]
  

  C O M I N ’ ‘ R O U N D T H E M O U N T A I N T H E R O U N D M O U N T A I N G I R L S ’ S...
  
  
  C O M I N ’ ‘ R O U N D T H E M O U N T A I N
  T H E R O U N D M O U N T A I N G I R L S ’ S E C O N D R E C O R D I S ONE S T E P C L O S E R I N T I T L E A N D A C C O M P L I S H M E N T
  
  B Y S A M U E L J . F E L L
  
  
  
  It rains a lot up here in Brunswick Heads, particularly at this time of year, but we don’t mind it so much. Sometimes it pours for days on end and all you can do is sit at your desk, looking out the window, wondering what the beach is like and when you’ll be able to get down there next. Other times it’s not so heavy, and you can jump on your bike and head out to see what’s happening, usually down to the pub, particularly when there’s a good band on. Tonight it’s not raining, although it has been all morning, and I am at the pub, and yes, there is a good band on. The Round Mountain Girls are flexing their live muscle, and that makes it warm and dry and people up the front are dancing like it’ll never rain again.
  
  Three days prior to this gig, I meet with banjo/guitarist Chris Eaton and drummer Rex Carter at this very pub, which is quite poignant for the Bruns Pub is where this sextet played their first gig together, some four or fi ve years ago. “We did, this is where we started,” smiles Eaton, looking around fondly, and this is echoed when I see them here live – they play like they own the place, never has a band seemed so comfortable up on a stage, although perhaps this isn’t so much because of the location but more because of the strong musical bond these musicians share. “Well, I initially got together with Brad [Hails)] who’s the other frontman, and Chris Brooker, who’s the other writer,” Eaton explains on the origins of the group, all of whom are based around the Northern Rivers region of NSW. “This was around 2005 or maybe 2006… so I brought those two together, and Brad knew our bassist [Chris Willoughby] and he knew the Sunnyboys’ drummer, who was coming back from Sydney, so he was our fi rst drummer [Bil Bilson]. Then before that, I found the fiddle player [Rabbit Robinson], and he was a real find… we struck a bit of gold there, because Rabbit plays really well. “Then a couple of years later, Bil decided he’d had enough because we just got busier and busier and he’d done all the rock star thing before,” Eaton goes on. “So he played on the first album then left, and Rabbit had been doing some work with you,” he adds, looking at Carter, who became Bilson’s replacement. “Yeah, I was running a Sunday afternoon jam session in Pottsville,” explains Carter.“Rabbit used to live across the road and he’d come over and join in.” From those informal sessions, Carter was drafted into the band, and from what I saw that evening, three days after our chat, he’staken to it like a fish to water. So since their formation in 2006, the Round Mountain Girls (who aren’t, of course, girls, but six men) have forged themselves a solid reputation. They’ve played Bluesfest, Tamworth and Woodford and countless gigs around the region and in 2008 released their debut, White Rum, a fantastic document of what they’re up to, rich in bluegrass/Celtic grooves, a record to be proud of. Where they’re at now then, a couple of years down the track, is set to release their second record, One Step Closer. And if you thought their debut was a cracker, then you should sink your teeth into this one. “A quality album we’re proud of,” states Carter unequivocally when I ask what they wanted to come out with, with this second record. “I’ve done a lot of recordings that I listen back to and think, ‘I wouldn’t do that again,’ but I’m quite happy with this one, I listen to it and I’m quite happy with it.“I didn’t want to die wondering, I wanted to do the very best that we could do, and the RMG sound has defi nitely developed,” Eaton muses. “Last time around, the White Rum album was some songs we’d had for a while, some songs I’d played with other bands in the UK and some songs that Brooker had played over here, and we just adapted them, whereas this new one has been written specifically for the musicians that we’ve got, so certainly in that way we’ve progressed.” This is a sentiment echoed by Brooker himself when I chat to him briefl y after the band’s first set – One Step Closer is a record made specifi cally for the RMG, and having seen them live and listened to the record a few times, you can tell how marked a difference this makes. Overall, this is an important record for the band then. They’re not rock stars by any stretch, but they’re professional musicians working on something they all feel extremely passionate about (just listeningto Eaton and Carter tells you this, the way they talk about playing together, making this music together). I’m interested to know where One Step Closer (produced, incidentally, by Anthony Lycenko) sees this band. “Music for me is a life choice, you just keep doing it, and this is what has come out this year, I’m happy with it, people love it and if it results in sales and bigger audiences, great,” says Carter. “So I don’t think in terms of those corporate attitudes, I just like it.” This sums up the ethos of the band, and it’s a very simple ethos – they’re playing music because it’s what they do, and if it takes them somewhere, so much the better. “It’s fun,” smiles Carter, a number of times throughout our interview, and he’s right; fun to play (no doubt), fun to listen to, fun to watch. And that’s why when you dance to the music of the Round Mountain
  Girls, it feels like it’ll never rain again. Not even in Bruns.
  
  One Step Closer is an independent release. The Round Mountain Girls tour through January, details in the Gig Guide.
  
  

• TAMWORTH – Changing & evolving. 2010 [+ Show ]
  

  What happens when you combine The Beatles, Oasis, Green Day, The Clash, The Animals and Wolfmoth...
  
  What happens when you combine The Beatles, Oasis, Green Day, The Clash, The Animals and Wolfmother with classic Pachabel, a dose of Irish and English folk music and plenty of original material?
  
  Why, obviously you get a hunk of Australian country!
  
  As far fetched as this may sound that’s exactly what happens when all these influences are put together by the Round Mountain Girls. And to top it all off the Round Mountain Girls are 6 blokes!
  
  RMG was one of the highlights of the Tamworth Country Music Festival. Having played three gigs in 2009, they were booked for 10 this year and each gig attracted an increasing number of converts to RMG’s unique brand of Country.
  
  Country rock? Blues? Soul? Western? None of these. Chris, Chris, Chris (no, that’s not a typo), Brad, Rex and Rabbit have created an entirely new genre of country music and Tamworth was the richer for it. Not only are they all very talented musicians, their on stage presence and the obvious fact that they were having a ball was infectious. ‘Banjo’ Chris Eaton’s version of Wolfmother’s The Joker and the Thief leaves the original for dead. Here is a man with an incredible voice! Paul ‘Rabbit’ Robinson was a finalist in this years Golden Fiddle Awards (losing to the venerable Davidson Bros). Coming from the Byron Bay area, one could almost be forgiven for thinking that the band had a collective dose of Mullumbimby Madness before coming on stage – such were their high energy performances.
  
  To top it all off they are a humble lot. On the last Sunday, when many had left Tamworth, their gig at West’s Diggers was packed. RMG’s genuine amazement at the crowd’s support only endeared them more to their new-found fans. RMG’s all-original debut album, ‘White Rum’ is available via www.roundmountaingirls.com .
  
  Graham Harsant 2010
  
  

Setlist

2012 Bluesfest - Crossroads Stage (45 minutes)

1. Secret Mens Business
2. Mobile Love
3. Chop Me Down
4. White Rum
5. Drowsy Maggie (traditional arr RMG)
6. Faith
7. Joker and The Thief (Wolfmother)
8. Move On

Basic Requirements

PDF Rider

Round Mountain Girls - Stage Plan 2012

Calendar