Artist Profile: Todd Fitzsimmons

Todd Fitzsimmons is a veteran blues guitar player best known for his decades of playing with many of upstate NY’s top bands. Beginning at an early age, in the delta of Otter Creek, Alexandria Bay, Todd started playing guitar hanging out in the summer with his Uncle Pat and kicking around the pub-filled streets of his hometown and even won a talent show at the early age of 12. One of those bands he used to listen to, with his underage nose stuck to to the window on the sidewalk, was Harvest. They took a liking to him and a couple years later, after woodshedding at 17, he joined the popular Southern Country Rock Band and then cut his teeth playing colleges and clubs all over upstate NY.

Todd is best known for his work with the Cold Shot Blues Band who backed greats like Jimmy Rogers and Pinetop Perkins, as well as opening for every major blues act touring. In the following decades, Todd has played and recorded with the likes of Roosevelt Dean, Pete McMahon and the SuperNaturals, Tom Townsley and the Backsliders, and with Kelly James at Woodstock ‘99 in Rome, NY.

In 2005, Willie Nelson invited Todd to open for him at a show in Willie’s hometown in Texas for the grand opening of the first biodiesel truckstop. Todd currently plays regularly with the Carolyn Kelly Blues Band. This is a great chance to hear him stripped down with just his guitar and voice while opening for his musical hero, Anders Osborne.

Learn more about Todd Fitzsimmons on Facebook.com.