Michael Bernard Fitzgerald - “Love Valley”

SXSW 2022 - OEB Score: 8; Popularity Index: 6

Pairs Well With…Hiss Golden Messenger, The War On Drugs, Jackson Browne

Michael Bernard Fitzgerald’s 2020 record Love Valley feels like one continuous song, a bed of Americana for the Canadian artist to lay his heart-worn songwriting. Gentle fingerpicking and whispers of slide guitars provide the bulk of Love Valley’s instrumentation. While notably minimal, there’s tension in Fitzgerald’s quick, repeating guitar melodies that gives normally quiet music a sense of pulsating movement. He delivers his songs like a true storyteller, a low, speak-sing vocal naturally gifted with robust grit. Lookout for sparse, yet effective, synth and saxophone work through Love Valley, little moments that break his purposeful one-lane sound. Musically, it’s difficult to tell one song from another on Love Valley and Fitzgerald turns that into a strength. It feels like different chapters in the same book and focuses ears to Fitzgerald’s lyrics. His songs are clever and heart-filled, engrossing in bites or taking in all of Love Valley as a long-form piece. Michael Bernard Fitzgerald is set to perform Saturday night at Stephen F’s Bar in what will be a good option for someone looking to close SXSW on a quiet, emotive note. (Kevin McStravick)