Patrick Fitzsimmons returns to Sparta concert stage

SPARTA — In what has become a long standing tradition, singer/songwriter Patrick Fitzsimmons will return to his old home town to perform a free concert in the park as part of the Sparta Summer Concert Series.
He will be playing numerous new tunes which will be featured on his upcoming new record, and lots of familiar songs from his previous six recordings. Patrick will be accompanied by longtime bandmates Paul Kuzik on bass, Goeff Doubleday on lead guitar and background vocals, and Jeff Barg on the drums.
As a young boy, Patrick loved the singer-songwriters of the ’70’s, drawn to the works of such artists as Cat Stevens, Paul Simon and James Taylor. Though his first instrument was the drums, he eventually came full circle to follow the path of his childhood heroes. In high school in Sparta he and two classmates formed a band that would ultimately become From Good Homes, a folk/rock band signed to RCA Records in the mid ‘90’s. FGH recorded three CDs with RCA and toured the country, sharing the stage with Bob Dylan, Dave Mathews Band, Joan Osborne and many others. In 1999 the band broke up and Patrick moved to Vermont and began his solo career.
Patrick’s last release was "Hope Is," his 6th CD and first on Malletts Bay Records. The title is directly inspired by the Emily Dickinson poem, "Hope Is the Thing With Feathers" but the album's emotional content is grounded in powerful real life events. Fitzsimmons started working on the songs for "Hope Is" back in the winter of 2011. Creatively blocked, he forced himself to write a song per day for a week via Skype for his west-coast girlfriend, calling them “Skype Dates”. The songs found their way to the album. The buoyant drive of the album marks a compositional breakthrough for the critically acclaimed songwriter who has been called “one of the most captivating songwriters around today” by Relix Magazine. John Platt of WFUV radio said, "Patrick has such a melodic gift and crystal clear voice...a singer-songwriter of the first rank".
Fitzsimmons is a 2011 and 2012 Solarfest national songwriting contest finalist and a three time Ploughshares national songwriting contest finalist and has had his songs placed in several independent films. Patrick's CD, So Beautiful So Blue, made several Best of 2008 lists and was played on radio stations all over the country. Patrick has shared the stage with some of the acoustic music scene's biggest names including Shawn Colvin, Dar Williams, Roger McGuinn, Ellis Paul and Vance Gilbert. Fitzsimmons continues to tour throughout the northeast building his large and loyal following with soulful, captivating performances.
Opening the evening concert will be Mef Gannon and Angela Adams, a longtime regional singing duo recently back to performing in our area. The concert is a FREE rain or shine event beginning at 7PM on July 28th, held at The Nicholson Pavilion in Dykstra Park, 22 Woodport Road, Sparta. Rain location is the auditorium of Mohawk Avenue School. Please see www.spartaarts.org for more information. The Sparta Cultural Affairs Committee would like to acknowledge Hart & Iliff as an event sponsor for the series.