Blues, Tuesday August 26 - 7.15pm

Blues, Wednesday August 27 - 1.30pm

HAT FITZ & ITCHY

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.

The essence of every Hat Fitz and Itchy performance is control of mayhem. A single metal bodied resonator guitar hammers out modern tributes to masters long gone, all the while driven along relentlessly by the thunderous drumming of Itchy ridin shotgun.

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

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.

MUSIC IN A JUGULAR VEIN

"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'

"My sincere compliments on the quality of the music. I listened and liked what I heard, this is music I can and do enjoy" - Bruce Iglauer, President, Alligator Records, Chicago, U.S.A.