Rock ‘n’ roll band Hatter plans to debut a new song when, for the first time, the act plays Lehighton’s Lizard Creek Pub, West Lizard Creek Road, on Saturday.

“‘Let’s Go!’ is a song that I wrote for my wife,” said George Parr, Hatter vocalist and lead guitarist. “It’s about appreciating all of the little things that make a relationship special.”

To date, the group — formed in Tamaqua in 2017 and based out of the Lehigh Valley — has performed original songs “Nature,” “Soul,” “Sippin’ My Tea” and “Coming Down.” The latter two, plus “Caught in the Rain,” will appear on Hatter’s forthcoming EP “Liquidity.”

The three-track EP, set for release in March, will have an early-to-mid-1990s alternative-rock feel. The set will feature a reworked version of “Coming Down,” which was first released in 2022 on Hatter’s website and a limited run of CDs at shows.

A band is formed

Hatter, the name honoring a late friend of Parr’s, also features Dylan Heft on vocals and rhythm guitar, Cody Schuch on vocals and bass, and Jordan Marsh on drums.

The quartet records at Bearhead Studio in Albrightsville with honorary fifth member Nick Girardi, who along with all Hatter members, produces the studio recordings.

Parr and Marsh, the latter also a member of instrumental metal band Geode, played together for a few months prior to forming Hatter. After a friend asked them to play at a party, the twosome set out to expand the act.

“We called a couple of friends to complete our lineup and started working on some songs I had written earlier in the year,” Parr said. “Back then, we were entirely an original project.”

However, “we wanted to play out as much as possible and to get booked, it helps to have covers in the set,” Parr said. The band‘s covers, rooted in 1950s-2000s rock, also includes unexpected songs such as ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” and The Beach Boys’ “Kokomo.”

With Hatter booking a good amount of shows each year exclusively for original material, the group wants to “help create a more exciting local, original-music community. We’re thrilled local events like PlantFest aren’t shy about booking original bands.”

Early inspiration

Parr, born in Langhorne and currently living in Kempton, always heard music in his home while growing up. After his grandfather introduced him to Elvis Presley as a young boy, “I started to want to pursue music, or more specifically, be like Elvis.”

Shortly thereafter, with $36 saved from his allowance, Parr bought his first guitar — a child-sized classical acoustic — out of a music catalog. He has the guitar to this day.

When he was 13, Parr’s family moved to Tamaqua. For Christmas that year, his parents gave him his first electric guitar. That same year, Parr’s grandfather gave him a Chuck Berry live CD, plus live DVDs of Bob Dylan and Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble.

“My mind was blown,” said Parr, who formed his first band, Old Gold, in high school. “That was when I knew for sure music was my passion.”

Before Hatter formed, Parr — whose influences today include Dylan, Father John Misty and Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne — played in local and regional bands. Genres included punk, country and electronic.

Different bands have played songs Parr has written since high school. He also has material he records at home and releases privately to friends and family.

Group effort

While Parr serves as Hatter’s primary songwriter, “everybody in the band contributes. I’ll typically present a song that I have a general structure for, along with chords and vocals, and the guys will fill in the rest of it, and that will make up our sound.”

Parr’s songs “are mainly social commentary on things I see in my life, things I’ve done and places I’ve been.” Heft, he added, “writes a lot about world stuff and big-picture topics.”

Band members, Parr said, have non-music jobs, though he wants music as his only job.

“My goal is to open a music shop where I can give lessons and record local bands while still performing most weekends.”

‘Hatter Highway’

In terms of Hatter’s accomplishments, “we adopted a stretch of highway just outside of Tamaqua and we organize a cleanup for it once a year,” Parr said. “We like to call it the ‘Hatter Highway.’ It’s Route 209 at the end of Tamaqua going towards Pottsville.”

Other highlights include playing at benefits for the American Cancer Society, such as Relay For Life ceremonies in Tamaqua, ZooStock in Lansford and the ACS telethon. Also, Hatter won a prize for its self-built float at its most recent of two Tamaqua Halloween parades.

Looking ahead, “a major personal goal for us is to have three EPs finished by the end of 2025,” Parr said, “and to play more original shows throughout all of Eastern Pa.”

In addition, Hatter — set to play Tamaqua’s Pine Street Pub on New Year’s Eve — wants to help build the music scene more.

The group, Parr said, works with local bands and venues when it comes to sharing shows, venue contacts and tech/sound needs.

“We are all about community and trying to grow it.”