Bio

There is a saying that you have to live it to sell it, and if that is true, then Charlie Fittler, an emerging country singer-songwriter with deep ties to the land, is the real deal. He has lived his entire 18 years on his family's fifth-generation Merino sheep property in the New South Wales Northern Tablelands outside of Armidale. This is the heartland, and country life runs in his veins.

Charlie say's "You would never see me without my hat, jeans, boots and my pocket knife. One day when I was little, I wore my spurs into the supermarket".

His first guitar, received as a Christmas gift, was an acoustic Tanglewood, and it quickly became an obsession before, at age eight, he started guitar lessons with Stephen Tafra, who he finds inspirational as a teacher and friend still to this day.

Four years later, he performed at his first open mic night at a local restaurant, and in the space of a few hours, in front of an audience, the seed was firmly planted.

“I remember the first night very well. I was 11 years old and had heard about a local open mic night in town, and I was encouraged to play a song. I was full of nerves, and the lights were blinding, but when I started to sing my first song, 'Lights On The Hill', the atmosphere changed, and it felt exhilarating. After that all I could think about was when could I perform next."

At age 13, Charlie headed down the Moonbi Range to the Tamworth Country Music Festival to give busking a shot. Standing in front of music fans belting out songs, he was hooked; the future was clear, and he has been back every year since. That he travelled on the same stretch of highway that Joy McKean, one of Australia's best songwriters, travelled on a dark rainy evening that inspired the classic 'Lights On The Hill", a song that Charlie still plays every night, does not escape him.

"Legends. Pure and simple. I love the music that Slim and Joy gave us, and I, like so many before me, have so much respect for the legacy they created."

He attended The Academy of Country Music in 2018, at which he co-wrote his debut single 'Guitar Can't Drink a Beer', released in 2019, with multi Golden Guitar winner Travis Collins.

You might not expect this guy to open his mouth with such a deep country roar and develop an equally young engaged fanbase. But to know Charlie Fittler is to learn that rebelling expectations and shaping his own path is standard procedure.

For Charlie, the road is long, but the journey will be a blast.