William FitzsimmonsIF YOU GO¦ What: William Fitzsimmons and Ben Sollee.¦ When: 8 p.m. Saturday, April 26.¦ Where: Barking Legs Theater, 1307 Dodds Ave.¦ Admission: $15 in advance, $18 at the door.¦ Phone: 423-624-5347.¦ Website: www.barkinglegs.org.DISCOGRAPHY2005: “Until When We Are Ghosts”2006: “Goodnight”2008: “The Sparrow and the Crow”2009: “Live From the Downtown Studios”2010: “Derivatives”2011: “Gold in the Shadows”2014: “Lions”
Emotional wounds can be some of the hardest to endure. Left alone, they can become septic and fester. In time, they can cripple.
Sometimes, says singer/songwriter William Fitzsimmons, the only cure is to rip off the bandage and expose the wound to the open air. In 2007, he did just that when he trained his writer’s eye on the gash left behind by his divorce.
The resulting songs of his third album and first studio album, “The Sparrow and the Crow,” communicated a world of hurt — like a voyeuristic recording from the therapist’s couch — but the process proved to be as cathartic as it was agonizing.
“As someone who studied and worked and has been a patient in therapy, I have a very foundational belief that confession — expunging shameful and secretive and dark things from inside — has value,” says Fitzsimmons, who was a mental health therapist before he joined the singer/songwriter ranks.