HAYSTACK MOUNTAIN HERMITS
Award-winning SE QLD family band loved for their blistering bluegrass, blood harmonies, beautiful ballads and brutal family banter.
- Travelling from
- Tamborine Mountain, QLD, AU
- Travel radius
- Within 50 km
ELLA CHURCH
Ella is the youngest Hermit. When she was five, she made her first stage appearance – on triangle – with her seven, nine and eleven-year-old brothers. She started learning piano at six. At seven, she was busking, playing ukulele and percussion, as the Haystack Mountain Hermits travelled Australia. She enjoyed counting the coins after busking but spent quite a lot of time hiding behind Mum’s upright bass when performing! Grey Nomads were known to pay Ella $5 to smile during songs back then, and she is quick to let people know she’s still accepting cash now! Happy to be in front of the bass these days, she now plays banjo and is an accomplished skiffle snare drummer. Ella sings with a voice that can melt the hardest heart and also adds sweet harmonies to the Hermits’ vocal arrangements. She holds her own onstage and off, is happy to drive the band van, has a wicked sense of humour and takes no shit from the boys, which is no surprise when you have 3 brothers.
LACHLAN CHURCH
Third-born Lachie, our resident mandolin maestro and guitarist, is a true showman. When he's on stage, he's not just playing music, he's flexing his muscles—literally! Especially when he's trading those lightning-fast 8s and 4s with his brothers. He sings both lead and tricky tenor harmony, holding his notes no matter what mayhem is happening onstage around him. Or because of him. Lachie started piano at 6 and at 7, debuted playing bass in the Churchmice Trio with his brothers. Lachie took “Wilson” (his favourite soccer ball) with him on our trip around Australia. As his soccer ball was confiscated when driving, he amused himself learning to play mandolin in the back of the van as we travelled the very long, straight and boring bits of the A1. He was so committed to his musical development that he attached the tuner to his nose to determine the key he burped in! Lachie enjoys playing mandolin breaks in many of our songs, but also plays guitar and has a deft touch on percussion and drums. Lachie sings lead and tricky tenor harmonies and always enjoys adding to the 6-part family banter! He has been awarded Best Haircut in the band for 9 years running.
MARCUS CHURCH
Marcus started playing piano when he was 7 and spent a lot of time growling at the low notes! Fortunately, our piano teacher was ok with that, as he had ten happy years of piano lessons. He learnt to play guitar in the back of the van as we travelled around Australia, and played the fingerboard bare on his new, green ukulele. During our first ever busk at Mindil Markets in Darwin, we were invited to play live-to-air at the ABC radio studios. We had reminded the kids to smile while performing and Marcus leaned over to tell me “I can’t help but smile”. He took great delight in confessing “We aren’t doing any schoolwork at all” to the ABC host! Marcus, our lead guitarist, is now a force to be reckoned with. With Conservatorium training under his belt, his fingers fly across the fretboard like lightning. When Marcus plays his blistering bluegrass breaks, jaws drop. He's already making a name for himself as one of Australia's up-and-coming guitarists and plays in many bands around Brisbane, including The Inadequates. It’s lucky we raised him as we couldn’t afford to hire him. And if you thought his guitar skills were impressive, just wait until you hear him sing. He’s an accomplished arranger and is also positively dangerous when he takes the mic to add to the family banter, and sound techs who know him well make great use of the mute function.
JACKSON CHURCH
Jackson is the eldest sibling and our accordion extraordinaire! He was loaned a small accordion by his piano teacher and was given the choice of an iPod or an accordion for his 13th birthday before we embarked on our Around Australia tour – he chose the accordion and has never looked back (which is a shame, as he might have spotted all our lost items strewn throughout Australia on the trip). He was thrilled to discover that he could play as we drove along and like the others, spent his time on the long and boring bits of the A1 profitably! We were interviewed and photographed for Australian Geographic at Mindil Beach Markets in Darwin on our second night of busking. Jackson’s accordion was affected by the humidity and he was relegated to a pink ukulele! He was quite disgusted not to be featured playing accordion. After that experience, he quickly learned how to repair and tune accordions himself. Jackson also plays percussion (contentiously voted “Best Finger Click”), including snare and our homemade washboard. His washboard solos have to be seen to be believed! His beautiful bass voice underpins our harmonies when he’s not singing lead. But that's not all—Jackson wields a comedic melodica, and he's a mean snare player too. And when it comes to packing the van, he's our Tetris wizard, fitting everything perfectly with his expert touch, honed while studying Maths and other hard shit at Uni.
DAVE CHURCH
Dave is lead singer and rhythm guitarist, Dobro P Plater, unusual repertoire seeker, head roadie, washboard construction co-engineer and maintenance mechanic, bus driver and Dad. Dave grew up in New Zealand. This was not his fault. His parents lived there. After learning piano for many years and playing trumpet in the school band, he formed Two Way Street with musician mates. The band held resident gigs for years in the Palmerston North area. He later joined Bob Jones and the Bad Investments, the Ranchsliders and with Bob Jones and Kerrie, the swing trio, Pendulum. Dave has a vivid memory of jamming with the Trenwith family, well-known NZ bluegrass musicians, and being inspired to form his own family band. That was a bit tricky to execute at the time, as he had no children. After moving to Australia, the opportunity presented to spend time making music with Kerrie and the kids. The six of them hit the road to tour Australia with every instrument they could fit into their vehicle and caravan! It became a running joke on the trip that Dave would be brain damaged and unable to remember lyrics as he hit his head on the caravan door frame nearly every time he entered. The kids’ vocabulary was somewhat broadened as a consequence. Actually, if you ask any of the Hermits, they will assure you that there is still some level of impairment (and a red mark under the hat).
KERRIE GAMBLEY
Kerrie is the Hermit’s resident songwriter, harmony CEO, upright bass player, social media queen (as crowned by kids), procurement officer, mediocre media manager and Mum. Family bands are in the genes for Kerrie. Her childhood was filled with music and there was rarely a car-trip from the bush to town without 3- and 4-part harmony from her family of six. As a child, she performed with her 3 siblings at local events in the Haystack Mountain area. She sang, played guitar and bass in her father’s old time dance band The Wanderers. That was mainly because she has two left feet and was banned from the dance floor. They performed in historic community halls all over Northern NSW. She developed a love of jazz and performed with bassist and guitarist Dave Tucker as the duo Hit & Ms. After moving to New Zealand, she met Dave, and they performed with American Bluegrass star Bob Jones (one of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys) as the swing music trio Pendulum. Returning to Australia, life was pretty busy for a while with 4 kids in 5 and a half years (and still is!); however the 7 months of travelling Australia in 2011 provided the downtime to focus on family and Haystack Mountain Hermits. Recently, Kerrie has had time to write more songs in between chemo, radiotherapy and surgeries after a breast cancer diagnosis in late 2022. We’re happy to report that she has written 115 songs and counting and we’re immersed in arranging and rehearsing the ones to be recorded on our upcoming album.
