Brian Stitt is a hobby/semi -professional singer who writes songs that are folky, countryish, silly or serious and that fit into no known genre. Brian was born in 1946 in Sydney into a family, including the extended family in Tumut, where music was a way of life. He was taught to play the uke by his father and went on to self-learn the banjo and guitar. Singing and playing music with mates at school led to becoming a member of the Norfolk Singers, a folk music trio that had a National Top 20 send up song in 1964 called The Opera House is Falling Down. Several other singles followed on the CBS label but failed to chart after which Brian went on to other pursuits like having kids and working in real jobs. Music however was always in the background and writing songs and playing in several cover bands became a way of staying in touch with music, other muso’s and was a diversion from the daily grind.
Fast forward to the new Millenium when a bunch of mates and family morphed into a band called The Runaway Cabbages he moved from Sydney to the Hunter Valley and continued writing, playing solo and performing with the “Cabbages” and then a chance meeting with Slim (Redback) Newton resulted in Slim recording six of Brians songs and Brian releasing eight self-funded CD’s of his own reducing his bank balance to nil. Brian continues to play in and around the Hunter Valley with the Runaway Cabbages or on his own as well as various Festivals and Tag-Along tours. He has won several Song Writing Awards and been placed in the top ten many times. Brian says the best compliment you can get is to have someone record or perform one of your songs or watch someone in the audience singing along at a gig.