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The decade-long legacy of The Three F’s started over a hamburger at The Branch.

Brett Fitzgerald and Matt Farinelli talked the manager into letting them perform one night – and that night turned into many more music-filled evenings.

Fitzgerald, The Three F’s drummer, said the original members were Matt Farinelli, John Fite, and himself.

“It was really just a kind of an idea,” Fitzgerald said. “Matt and John and I had played two or three times over at Granny’s Attic and we were playing jazz. We had some people from the Jazz Lab or the director of the Jazz Lab come over and play sax with us. We really enjoyed that, so we thought, ‘Well, why not at The Branch?’”

After talking to the manager, the group started playing every Tuesday night at The Branch for a couple of years.

Fitzgerald said that at that time, they played all sorts of music, but their main focus was jazz. Farinelli then brought his father, Carl, into the band to incorporate some blues and Cajun tunes. Matt has since left the group to perform in Nashville with another band, and Joe Mack now also plays with the band.

Carl Farinelli, The Three F’s guitar player, said the band has undergone several changes throughout the years, making the band name change every now and then from the The Three F’s. to The Four F’s. to Joe Mack and The Three F’s. depending on who performs with the group.

“The current configuration is John Fite on piano and Carl Farinelli on guitar, harmonica, and the fiddle, Joe Mack on the bass, and me on the drums,” Fitzgerald said.

The group has performed at the Crawfish Festival for several years, initially playing all sorts of music until a Cajun band didn’t show up one night.

“They had a band that was supposed to show up from New Orleans that didn’t, and they asked us, ‘Do you guys know any Cajun music?’ and Carl is 100% Cajun, so we took that set and played A to Z from Bourbon Street. It was pretty interesting,” Fitzgerald said.

This spurred the group to play more Americana and what Farinelli calls “Swamp Boogie.”

“That’s kind of what we’ve gone to now – we mainly play what we call Swamp Boogie. Some people call it Swamp Rock or Swamp Pop, whatever term you like,” Farinelli said. “It includes the old zydeco and Cajun songs, plus the more modern stuff.”

Even though the group has undergone several changes throughout the years, The Three F’s still focus on having fun while performing.

“It’s a really, really fun band too,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s the thing I think the audience likes about us the most: They know we’re having fun and they are having fun with us. That’s the key: As long as we’re having fun, we’re going to keep doing it.”

What’s next

The Three F’s will be performing at the Crawfish Festival, April 12 at 6:45 p.m. and April 13 at 3:15 p.m. They will also perform April 27 for the Red Fern Festival at The Branch at 10 p.m.

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