Hat Fitz

The ‘wild man' of Australian blues, Fitz hails from Queensland. Backed by his longtime drummer, Itchy, Fitz plays guitar (usually a metal-bodied resonator), stomps his foot and sings the blues with a physical presence and power that remind listeners of past blues greats like Son House and Charley Patton. In many ways, he is Australia 's counterpart to R.L. Burnside or T-Model Ford, playing gritty blues of mesmerising, deceptive simplicity.

Born in 1967, Fitz cut his teeth on his father's Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, and started out playing rock and roll and jug band music. He formed his first blues band, Hat Fitz and the Blooze Bitz with brothers Itchy and Scratchy from acoustic blues combo, Gravel Road .

Over the last decade, Fitz has toured regularly, playing at festivals around Australia (including eleven successive years at the East Coast Blues festival), and in Europe . He has released several independent CDs, including the 1998 encounter with guitar maestro Jeff Lang on The Silverbacks.

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His repertoire includes his own interpretations of blues classics like ‘Shake ‘Em On Down' and ‘Crawling King Snake', as well as a swag of original songs. Thanks to Fitz's telepathic rapport with Itchy, the duo can build their performances through a series of frenzied, almost-out-of-control crescendos.

“This is a loud, feral stomp down a Queensland dirt road ...... the sort of unpretentious music that doesn't care whether you're as pissed as a maggot or sober as a judge …… the players sound like they're beating their instruments to within an inch of their lives.” - Jeff Lang

  “Anyone who has seen Hat Fitz perform …. knows how the big man can stir up an audience with his wild, frantic interpretations of early Delta blues classics and self-penned songs ….. Fitzy would have to be Australia 's foremost purveyor of authentic pre-War Delta blues.” – Al Hensley, ‘Rhythms'