Local band Refractory Road will be playing at the Riverside Hotel this Friday night for the WAM Wheatbelt Touring Circuit, following a successful debut gig at the Toodyay Music Festival last month.
All of the five band members have previously played in cover bands around the Avon Valley for the past 15-20 years.
Vocals and guitarist Glen Dunkerton said the band transitioned to writing original songs naturally.
“We all love playing music and we all wanted to mess around with writing original stuff,” he said.
“Me and Lloyd (vocals and guitarist, Lloyd Reidy) have been writing, rehearsing and performing for over two years and the band has just grown organically over the past 12 months.”
Other members of the band include Grant Scollay on lead guitar and vocals, Kim Holten on drums and Jay Carter playing bass.
Both Lloyd and Glen are teachers at St Joseph's in Northam and Kim teaches at Northam Senior High School.
“I have a lot of ex-students who are quite interested because they knew the cover band,” said Glen.
“I saw some current students at the Toodyay Music Festival and they are surprised I am doing it!”
The band plays a mix of country blues and rock and are influenced by Paul Kelly and Bruce Springsteen.
They sing about their experiences through to current events.
Glen said his five children are interested in their dad playing in a band, however he doesn’t “think anything can make you a cool dad but it would be nice!” he said.
Glen said he hopes to see “a whole heap of locals” down at the Riverside enjoying the original music.
“When I did covers, Friday night was the big night in Northam,” he said. “We used to fill rooms – we would love to see those kind of crowds again.”
The band will be supporting The Jackson Roses and Nat Pearson from 8pm in the courtyard.
Jackson Roses was nominated for WAM Song of the Year 2017. They formed in early 2014 and slowly began building a small repertoire of songs in the tradition of the 70’s Alt-Country & Americana scene.
Since then, their sound has become more solid, simple and refined to reflect the rich and dusty traditions of the regional musical culture that they represent, Australia.
The bands will be playing on Saturday at Aggie's Cottage in Dandaragan with local Kelly Gardner from 6pm and on Sunday in Mackie Park, Narrogin with Nicole Davies from 3-6pm. All events are free.