Rita & the Rock'n'Rollers

Rita & the Rock'n'Rollers Bio:

Rita

The native German got in touch with different cultures early in life. As the child of a family with "nomad blood" - who travelled through the entire West of the United States for months with her when she was only a year old - she had already moved 15 times at the age of 18.


Rita is making music since she was three. It all began with the rhythm group. She sang wherever she went since she was little but that wasn't enough for her. She went looking for support. With the same boogie for days and weeks she played her neighbors to the edge of insanity and she put the guitar away after only half a year of playing.

"I knew very early that my world is not the guitar. But through her I found my way to the Blues."

Later it seemed to be coincidence that put he bass in her hand. One time there was no bass player at a workshop, so Rita took the instrument and never set it aside ever since. "It was love at the first chord", Rita marvels, who was fascinated by rhythm as long as she can recall. She locked herself in her room for the whole summer and practiced many hours a day. Merely half a year later she had joined her voice with the instrument.

Rita formed her first band at age 19 and acquired recognition and stage practise in the Blues community. But after a while she felt limited by only interpreting other people's songs and started working on her own compositions that would more honestly display her attitude towards life.

For that she teamed up with the experienced guitar player Bernard Groll. Both complement each other perfectly and their songs reflect the harmony in this functioning team.

Bernard Groll

The eclectic guitar player is playing the Blues since 1969. In the 70th he met with Blues-greats like e.g. Muddy Waters, Rory Gallagher, Peter Green, die Allman Brothers Band and others who inspired him. He was allowed to share the slide with Waters and Gallagher and they even taught him some tricks. To him the most important thing in music was the band and he always considered guitar playing as a part and support of the sound as a whole. He was never interested in joining the "maximum notes per minute"-race. People repeatedly get struck by his tone.


Since 1995 the band lives in the US several months a year and considers Dallas, Texas their "home base" since 1998. Rita already shared the stage with local greats like Paul Byrd, Robin Bank$, Christian Brooks and Blues-legend Sam Meyers or Dallas' own Hash Brown.

One can't deny the Texas influence in Rita & the Rock'n'Roller's songs. They shuffle, they rock, they groove and they boogie until even the last guest in the audience is moving. And sometimes Bernard unexpectedly throws in one of his Surf songs and people get surprised how he can get that sound out of a Les Paul.

Still the most amazing part of the band is the singer. Sometimes soft and seductive, sometimes rough and vigorous is her interpretation, yet always meaningful she holds the audiences attention. Conversation dies down when Rita takes over her microphone.
The fragile person fascinates with volume and range that one certainly wouldn't have expected. You almost overlook that Rita plays bass as well, powerful and precisely.

The long cooperation of Rock & Groll results in a kind of "charming routine". The team communicates without words and emit so much harmony and joy that the spark jumps across to the audience.

Rita & the Rock'n'Roller's is modern Blues-Rock that joins the styles from both sides of the Atlantic. A band with individuality and an easily recognizeable sound.