Thursday evening, the odd singer/songwriter William Fitzsimmons played at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta. While he may or may not appreciate the label "odd," and I certainly don't mean it in any kind of derogatory way (hey, a lot of people probably refer to me as "odd"), with a huge beard almost as large as the rest of his shaved head, he does sort of stand out in an odd kind of way.
Smith's Ole Bar is an Atlanta institution. The classic roadhouse downstairs has decent food served by pretty waitresses and offers pool tables, darts and the usual barroom diversions, while the club has no less than two stages, The Atlanta Room downstairs mainly for local acts, and a separate, larger Music Room upstairs (unusual feature: a curtain around the stage that modestly closes between acts so the musicians can set up in privacy).
Speaking of Smith's, Fitzsimmons included a cover of a song by The Smiths in his set last night, accurately noting they were one band whose outlook was almost as bleak as his. His songs are mostly downtempo reflections on suffering, pain, loss, and desire, and it is not at all unusual to hear him introduce a song by saying, "This one's about addiction and how we fall in love with our addictions, which I think is what happens quite often," as he did last night.
"If you leave here tonight feeling depressed and miserable, then I've done my job," he joked near the beginning of his set.
Oddly (there's that word again), the large crowd (for Smith's at least) seemed to loved it. Fitzsimmons noted several times during his set that he appreciated the fact that several people apparently traveled significant distances to see last night's show, and the enthusiastic crowd seemed to be quite receptive, both to Fitzsimmons' music as well as the opening set by his backing band, Charleston, South Carolina's Slow Runner, who opened the evening with a full 45-minute set in a variety of pop styles to an enthusiastic audience. "We love you, Michael," several young women screamed in unison at singer/keyboardist Michael Flynn between two songs before the band members were even introduced, suggesting a certain familiarity with the opening act. Although only a trio, Slow Runner played a variety of instruments, including guitar, drums, bass, banjo, uke, xylophone, and the ubiquitous Nord Electro keyboard, quite well.
After a brief intermission, Slow Runner returned to the stage as the back-up band for Fitzsimmons (several of the musicians can be seen in the video above). Fitzsimmons' stage banter was self-deprecating almost to a fault, assuring the audience, for example, not to worry if they were unfamiliar with the songs from his superlative new album, Gold In The Shadow, since "all my songs sound the same, anyway." He was also a little off-putting, telling some of the talkative members of the audience to basically "shut up or get the hell out." One certainly could not accuse him of pandering to the audience to warm up to the difficult subject matter of his songs.
We were not deterred. The songs were greeted enthusiastically and the chatterboxes in the crowd were frequently shushed. Even cranky old Fitzsimmons himself warmed with the evening, eventually taking requests and expressing sincere gratitude for the reception. The set ended with the three members of Slow Runner lining up with him at the front of the stage on acoustic instruments.
For the encore, the band came off the stage and into the audience Edward Sharpe style to play a song without any amplification, only the intimate sounds of their actual voices and harmonies.
Fans of Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, and Seattle's Damian Jurado might want to check out Fitzsimmons' music. According to allmusic.com:
Born in Pittsburgh to two blind parents, both of whom were living-room musicians, [Fitzsimmons] began playing piano and trombone in elementary school and taught himself guitar as a junior high student. Over time, he also learned to play banjo, melodica, ukulele, and mandolin. While pursuing a master's degree at Geneva College, Fitzsimmons began tracking some of his songs on home recording equipment. These self-produced recordings were compiled together and released as 2005's When We Are Ghosts, a strong debut album that appeared during Fitzsimmons' time working as a mental health therapist. . . His songs started showing up on various television soundtracks, including Grey's Anatomy, General Hospital, Life of Ryan, and Army Wives. A second self-produced album, Goodnight, appeared in 2006, influenced heavily by his parents' divorce during his childhood. By this point, Fitzsimmons had settled on a distinct sound: a gentle mixture of folk-rock and electronica applied to carefully written (and often autobiographical) songs that, at their best, delivered a quiet emotional punch. He carried the theme of divorce into his first official studio album, The Sparrow and the Crow, which dealt with a recent split with his wife. Released in 2010, Derivatives lightened things up by focusing on electronica remixes of his past work (as well as a cover of Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl), and 2011's Gold in the Shadow found Fitzsimmons confronting his demons with help from guest artists like Julia Stone.
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