Folktronica January 11, 2008
Posted by admin in : Songs , trackbackI bet the title of this post makes you think “Mmmmm, not for me….”
But if you’ve read this far, you’re close to listening to one of my best discoveries in a long, long time. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be spending more time than I have been working through my collection, browsing the sites in my blogroll, and habitating as many online communities as I can, as I’ve found in the last few weeks, there’s so much reward to be had from some additional effort – I’ve come across more artists in the last few weeks than ever before; a number of whom are fast becoming personal favourites.
One of these is William Fitzsimmons. You can already get the vibe of what he sounds like from his admitted influences: Nick Drake, Iron & Wine, Aimee Mann, Elliott Smith, Death Cab for Cutie, Ben Gibbard, Cat Stevens. Now, take three songs that sound so gentle you’re afraid to listen too hard in case you break them, and for the song “Please Don’t Go”, lay down a repeating, hiccuping electronic beat underneath, and include lyrics such as “I saw you on my phone, on a contact list that isn’t up to date. Would have changed it with more time, that i require to rid my mind of all the freckles on your face” (“It’s Not True”) and “Is it misguided that I can recall the day you left my bed, and asked your mom and dad if maybe you could stay with them instead?” (“Hold On With My Open Hands”).
I think it says a lot for William that I spent nearly an hour trying to decide what songs to include here from his 2007 album “Goodnight”. I uploaded, deleted, and reuploaded a number of songs, eventually settling on the three here – but there are another ten that could easily have found their way here.
Enjoy.
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William Fitzsimmons – Hold On With My Open Hands
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William Fitzsimmons – It’s Not True
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William Fitzsimmons – Please Don’t Go
Comments»
Nice post on “the Bearded One”. Thanks for the reminder on the Goodnight album, I also recommend his earlier LP – Until When We Are Ghosts, a bit more straight forward singer/song/folk release.
Nice site by the way!
S.
Thanks for the recommendation & the compliment!
Amazing songwriter,my favourite,absolutely..and the sparrow and the crow is incredible..
please don’t leave me,afterall
As mentioned above, anyone who likes his first two albums (“Until When We Are Ghosts” and “Goodnight”) MUST look into “The Sparrow and the Crow” – it’s absolutely devine (the live version is amazing, too).
you guys should check out ‘Derivatives’. It’s a remixalbum of some of William’s songs. Don’t let the ‘remix’ scare you off, it’s still Fitzsimmons worthy!
Thanks for the heads-up – going to check this out right now!
William is amazing. I’ve been a fan for a very long time and he never dissappoints. Please, get into him. He will amaze you.
I wanted to thank you again for the introduction to William Fitzsimmons- I got to hear him live last night and it was great. He appeared in a small, intimate venue and put on a wonderful show. He’s actually quite funny as well.
found my way here through your facebook adds…. great site, it’s bookmarked already!
i’ve been a fan of WF for a while now and just recently discovered sia myself. i’ll be spending quite some time on here, going through all your posts!
if you haven’t heard of him yet, you should look up bobby long!
thank you for doing all my legwork!
You’re very welcome, Linda – hope you find lots of new music!
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