Blues and Roots at Monroe’s with Hat Fitz and Cara

Putting a winning stomp on blues and roots music, Hat Fitz and Cara play the Backstage Bar in Monroe’s next Friday, June 20. The duo, also a couple, met when they were both playing at the Castlebar Blues Festival several years ago.

“I spotted Fitzy and I thought ‘what a very handsome man’,” recalls Cara Robinson, who hails from Bangor, Co Down. “He had that bit of roguishness about him. He had come to my gig, and in the interval I snuck off to go and see his show and it was absolutely fantastic.

“Later on that night, they had a band on playing country music. I never really dance to country music, and I don’t think Fitzy does either. He took the opportunity to ask me for a dance, and nudged me on to the floor.”

A romance was born that night in the Travellers’ Friend hall, but it didn’t have the most auspicious beginning.

“We danced awkwardly for about two minutes, which seemed like a lifetime then he got all cocky and started spinning me around and this and that,” says Cara. “Next thing he twirled me around and the back of my head smacked into a marble pillar in the TF hall.”