In 2018, the   highly regarded music producer, 2022 Blues Music Hall of Fame inductee and bass player Barry Hills decided to form a session band with Australian Chain Awards guitarist Brian Fraser and highly regarded multi-instrumentalist Roland Kretschmer. A number of musical projects were successfully complemented with various other musicians available at the time.

The sessions continued throughout the 2020–21 Covid lockdown era during small windows of opportunity to be in confined spaces. During this time a long-time friend, the highly regarded artist Kelly Auty, was invited to sit in with one of these impromptu sessions. The instant musical bonding signalled an about-turn for Barry’s original project.

Over the next 12 months as the music industry recovered, Kelly, Barry, Roland and Brian performed with changing band members and names like Kelly Auty & the Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Kelly Auty & Band. Eventually Kelly’s long-time drummer and songwriter, Nick Carrafa, completed the lineup and everyone realised new song ideas could be brought to rehearsal and shaped into fantastic arrangements.

Session players love the studio and they recorded a handful of songs at Woodstock Studios in Balaclava in early 2024. With each member bringing new songs and styles to the table, PepperCreek Revival was born. The name evolved from a video shoot under a pepper tree and Barry’s love of Leon Russell’s New Grass Revival, fusing groundbreaking bluegrass, jazz, gospel and rock in the 1980s, and perfectly mirroring how the band was starting to sound.

In October 2024 PepperCreek Revival with Kelly Auty released a self-titled album to critical acclaim, reaching #2 on the ABARAC and AMRAP charts and remaining in the charts for 5 months. Three singles were released from this successful album, reimagining versions from Kelly’s earlier releases – country ballad ‘Falling’, country blues ‘Train I’m on’ and a new soul-tinged song ‘Dreaming’   with videos.

The playing is superb, perfectly complementing Auty’s vocals. When you have a voice this strong, the temptation is to over-sing. But Kelly Auty realizes the beauty of restraint. Everything sounds effortless on PepperCreek Revival’s self-titled debut. Not a syllable seems out of place. – Jeff Jenkins, Rhythms magazin

It wasn’t long until new songs were being written and being arranged and they started recording their new album in May 2025, releasing two singles as they went. The haunting chords and soulful lap-steel motif on ‘Backward glance’ and euro-country ballad ‘Remember’,   featuring mandolin and lush vocals, would be the flagship for a yet-to-be-named album. During a break at rehearsal when Nick was noodling on guitar, a small riff caught Barry’s ear and the jam began, culminating in a brand-new song with Kelly’s lyrics, ‘It’s all been said’. This highlighted what this album was about – ‘We are trying to reinvent our love of all musical styles and   defy any music genre boundaries’. In February 2026 It’s All Been Said was released and debuted at #5 on the ABARAC charts.