Biography
Uniquely Scottish and yet heavily influenced by the music of Elvis Costello and Loudon Wainwright III. Napier and his tight four piece band dispatch upbeat musical vignettes on a host of subjects from love sick librarians to peeping toms.
Their music is melody led and full of irresistibale hooks that capture your attention on the first listen, but the real meat is in the lyrics. His catchy sing-along songs have been likend to that of Ben Folds.
The band released their second album ‘File Under Fiction’ in 2011 and have appeared at many festivals and venues across the UK including Belladrum, The Insider, Cambridge Folk Festival, Wickham Festival and Celtic Connections.
This is a band of real quality in every area and they deserve to be heard.
Current Members
Findlay Napier- Guitar and Vocals
Gillian Frame- Fiddle
Douglas Millar- Piano
Scott MacKay- Drums
Euan Burton- Bass
History
The Bar Room Mountaineers evolved from two projects. Firstly Findlay was a member of Scottish Traditional Folk band ‘Back of the Moon’ who played their final gig at the Kenedy Centre in Washington DC on the 21st November 2006. As ‘Back of the Moon’ was winding down Findlay came up with the idea of a band that showcased his own songwriting next to traditional Scottish material.
The other project was a writing project with Nick Turner called ‘Queen Anne’s Revenge’. Findlay met Nick at Watercolour Music, Nick’s recording studio, while recording Back of the Moon’s second album Fortune’s Road.
The intital line up of the Bar Room Mountaineers featured his wife and ex-Back of the Moon fiddle player Gillian Frame on vocals and fiddle; Douglas Millar a piano player he had met while recording the first Queen Anne’s Revenge album and, finally Paul Jennings a drummer and percussionist who was a stalwart of the Glasgow music scene. Paul had been focusing his attention on Cajon playing and Findlay saw the opportunity to create a small powerful band that sounded bigger than the sum of it’s parts that could tour Guerilla style all over the world.
The band recorded demos for their first album with Angus Lyon at his fledgeling home studio ‘Gran’s House’. It was decided that after the success of these demos the band would record their debut album ‘Out All Night’. As the album was being recorded ‘Gran’s House’ grew from a home studio into a fully fledged project studio now frequented by the finest of Scotland’s music scene.
After the band’s first American tour Paul left to work with the worlds fastest tap dancer James Devine and rather than continue with a percussion setup the band decided to look for a new drummer.
And so began The Bar Room Mountaineers Spinal Tap like relationship with drummers. Main drummer Scott MacKay has played on all the bands recordings since 2008 and features on almost all their gigs however in the past he has been replaced by one of a crew of willing Mounties including Sam MacLeod (Bombskare),Martyn Hodge, Blair MacMillan, Louis Abbott (Admiral Fallow) and Phil Hague (Admiral Fallow).
