Adam Fitz

Adam Fitz quartet live on ABC7 news July 4, 2010 - ABC7

Blown out, crooked crooner, Adam Fitz breaks hearts and steams windows with his gruff voice and soulful delivery. Fresh off the release of his new live album Spazz Ballads & Friendly Fire, Fitz shifts between high energy rock and thoughtful balladry with emotion rarely matched. An experienced songwriter in his own right, Fitz also performs many interpretations of songs by his contemporaries and idols including Leonard Cohen, M. Ward. and Okkervil River. - Jam Productions

...Adam Fitz and his pop-rock quartet played between segments as the models were preparing to be judged, and Debbie and Isaac were grilling the remaining contestants about their lives, and asking them what they gave up to participate on the show. With emotion in their voices and tears in their eyes, the audience could see how much it meant to them to be a contestant on the show. - chicago.racked.com

...Opening the show were The Adam Fitz Band and Ralph "Soul" Jackson. As a backing band, AFB works it like the best rhythm and blues bands: they tighten up and let it flow without letting the seams show. As a guitarist, Fitz meshes well with the group, but as a vocalist he's working a bit beyond his reach. He doesn't seem entirely comfortable in the role of soul crooner yet, though perhaps there was the intimidation factor from working with Jackson, who fronted four numbers with the group, and poured his charisma all over the audience.

As Jackson grabbed the hands of those along the rim of the stage, and addressed the lines of "Just Because I Love You" to those nearby, my companion declared "No one sings to the audience anymore." Perhaps that's because no one truly sings soul music anymore, where the goal of the live performance is to establish an intimacy with the people down front, as well as those seated way in the back. It's what gives new life to a song like "Sunshine of Your Love," a relic of 70s rock that practically creaks with age when pouring out of a car stereo, but in the hands of Jackson and the Adam Fitz Band, managed to regain its sense of lustful anticipation, with winking nods to the melodies of The Temptations "Get Ready." - Time Out Chicago

Last (for me) was Adam Fitz. I've been going to Adam's shows since it was just him with a guitar and keyboard. The sincere awkwardness of his stage presence was always something that added to the show rather than annoyed. Well, Adam has come a long way, both with his backing band and his stage presence. Drummer Dan Salyers looked as if he would fit in the grimiest jazz club and have the place jumping, all while he smiled sweetly to the sky. Eddie Dixon, strumming guitar, playing keys and twiddling knobs fills the mad-scientist role of the band perfectly. Adam, after the release of his amazing album, Between The Incident and The Event, now gives off the air of someone who has cleared is first hurdle and is better prepared for the subsequent ones to follow. His voice is stronger and clearer and the minor hangups of playing live don't distract him as much as they used to. Peppering his setlist of original songs with the occasional tip of the hat to his influences (Leonard Cohen and Velvet Underground to name a couple), Adam's live show switches tempo as often as his voice breaks to ascratchyy melodic scream. All of this is a good thing. At one point during his set, Adam asked how much longer he had to which an audience member yelled back, "an hour!" I agree. Keep going Adam! Keep right on going. - Mediatron

As a bonus Chicago soul crooner Adam Fitz is opening up. These two songs are from a forthcoming record Curing Too Much with More. “After Party” is a power pop rave up with crunchy guitars while “Lost In It” is a perfect slab of organ drenched blue eyed soul. - songsillinois.net

LFS10 (presented by the Music Vox!) is shaking off the post-Thanksgiving first snowfall of the season blues with Adam Fitz. The New City called his first record, "honest and often intimate blend of soul, rock and folk," but we just call him a damn fine rock and roll songwriter.

Adam's been in the studio once before as the guitarist for Algebro, but we invited him back to share something a little closer to his own heart.
Adam Fitz is Chicago Indie Rock / Soul / RnB musician who was on the program last October playing guitar with Algebro, but this time the spotlight is all his! His got a great voice, great sound, an interesting medley of musicians and a new album on the way. So without further delay... Adam Fitz - Live From Studio 10! - Vocalo.org

In 2005 local musician Adam Fitz released a fine record called “Between the Incident and the Event,” an honest and often intimate blend of soul, rock and folk. Mostly ballads, Fitz’s aggressive voice blew some preconceived notions out the window; it seems the crunchier and gritty he became, the more affective the songs were. An impressive feat for a guy who probably can’t sing all that well, Fitz made a melodic, powerful record with rock songs that are mostly led by his vocals.

Now he’s back with “Spazz Ballads & Friendly Fire,” a live record he and his band recorded at Wall to Wall back in 2007. On July 8, he celebrates the record’s release, an event held up for so long because it took time for him to find an appropriate mix that was satisfactory. An album of covers, Fitz offers his interpretations of Mirah’s “La Familia,” M. Ward’s “Fool Says” and Velvet Underground’s “I Found a Reason,” among others. It sounds like a fun show and makes for a good live record—Fitz is backed by horns, organ, keys and everything else that makes a reasonable live band whose soul is on its sleeve.

“I was trying to reinvent tunes by people I love,” Fitz says. “It seems weird to make a studio album of covers—it’s definitely a live thing. When I sit down and write, I tend to lean towards balladry, and it’s hard to get people to come out regularly to listen to you sing sad songs.”

Fitz, who grew up on the South Side, booked two shows in one night at Wall to Wall, and played mostly in front of family and friends. But, obviously, the success of the recording was fully dependent on the strength of the performance. “The way this was recorded,” Fitz says, “everything bled, so I had no ability to go back and amend anything. It was kind of just like, the lesser of evils. ‘Oh, I like my performance on that one, but the guitar is better on the second set.’ We ended up with those ten tunes [on the album], and I think it’s a pretty good representation.”

The band is already at work on its second studio record; you should expect to hear some songs from the work-in-progress at the show, along with only a handful of the live cuts from the new record. “By the time you’re done with it,” Fitz says, “you’re sick of the songs.” - New City

This south-side native doesn't have a particularly pretty voice, and his songs aren't immediately engaging--his solo debut is a slow-growing pleasure. A classic singer-songwriter record, full of 70s piano balladry, sad-sack country, and Springsteen-style narratives, it's got the same sort of rootsy bonhomie (and sandpapery vocals) that made Rod Stewart's early Mercury albums so appealing. - Chicago Reader

They say John Fogerty developed his distinctive Creedence Clearwater Revival field holler by playing in noisy bars with cruddy PAs—it was all he could do to be heard. Chicago singer-songwriter Adam Fitz has a similar shouting style. It’s true he didn’t sound that way when he was with Situation Normal, the faintly ska-influenced local band he played with a decade ago. Back then his vocals were almost conversational; now, it’s more like confrontational, with him singing just above his range. And as we can hear on his self-released album Between the Incident and the Event, his distinctive vocals are just what his songs need.

Fitz, a South Side native, began his solo career seemingly the way a lot of singer-songwriters do: After the band broke up, he apparently kept on writing yet had no real vehicle, so he circulated his own demos, recorded with friends and distributed mostly to his buddies. The chain eventually led to a chance meeting with producer Mike Corcoran, who took him into the studio for a proper session, which yielded his first (and so far) only album.

Fitz’s shows will preview a live EP slated for later this year on the Rabbit Factory label. Not only will this contain covers he’s been working into his set for the last couple of years (including tunes by Leonard Cohen, M. Ward and Joe Henry), but rearranged live versions of a few of Incident’s songs. Along with newer material, you can expect this side of Fitz to emerge tonight.—James Porter - Time Out Chicago