Ron Sexsmith is sitting in my living room, drinking tea. It's the day his first book of fiction, Deer Life, was released, something he seems to have forgot. "I just remembered," he said, looking up. "My book gets released today!" He then tells me about the time he had breakfast with Paul and Linda McCartney at their farm, in Scotland.
I put this record on the turntable. I love the cover. The colours are just so beautiful. It’s also a terrific record. Ron has one of those voices that is almost flawless. It floats effortlessly above carefully crafted melodies like a bird going from flower to flower. Released two decades into his career, the songs on this LP take on an unfamiliar optimism. The man who is often pegged as a somewhat downbeat balladeer seems strangely content here. “I didn’t realize until we were putting the songs together that this would be more outgoing," he said. "There’s a lot more humour. I mean, there’s even a smiling picture on the cover, which I’ve never had before. I just hope it doesn’t scare the children.”
This record is almost, dare I say, upbeat - although to be honest Ron’s “sad clown” reputation is more a media invention than anything else.
The album opens with Sure As The Sky, which exhibits a taut drumbeat beneath a delicious piano melody, an instrumentation that reminds me of something the aforementioned Mr. McCartney might have recorded
Sexsmith sings, “Sure as the sky is wide / To hold every prayer inside / As sure as the sky is / I know things are looking up / Yes I know things are looking up.” The song is, in a word, beautiful - and the record doesn’t get any worse as the needle works its way in.
Sexsmith is a great songwriter and lyricist and this record (produced by Joe Scott (Wilco, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Foo Fighters) is Sexsmith’s first offering since 2013’s Forever Endeavour. It also feels distinctly like a 1970s record, and Sexsmith's press release states he was inspired by artists such as Phoebe Snow and Gerry Rafferty, who saw their careers peak during that time.
Things slow down a bit on All Our Tomorrows, which is a gorgeous song. "All our tomorrows / And all of our yesterdays / Were days we had to borrow / What has already been repaid,” Sexsmith sings. There's also some tasteful Hammond B3 organ here, which is a nice touch.
This is a heavy-duty, 180-gram pressing. It feels good when you hold it in your hands and it has a nice, clean sound throughout. A very highly recommended recording!
The following is an excerpt from a Record Collector magazine interview, copyright 2020.
You started playing covers in local bars while still in your teens.
I was 17 when I started playing in 1981, doing just everybody else's songs. I did have some songs of my own as I had a band in high school, but the songs weren't really good. And in my hometown, the people there didn't want to really listen to original music, they just wanted to hear all their favourites. Which was why when I did start to write, I moved to Toronto.
That was the catalyst that led to your first self-released album, Grand Opera Lane.
Shortly after I moved to Toronto in '87, I met two people who would have a huge effect on my life. One was Bob Wiseman who at the time was in a band called Blue Rodeo, a very successful Canadian band. He heard me singing on an open stage. The other was Don Kerr who worked at the same courier company as me. Don heard I was a songwriter and knew a bass player he had been jamming with. So we kind of needed each other in a way, as they were looking for songs to play and I was looking for a band. We started rehearsing together calling ourselves The Ron Sexsmith Trio. But people kept showing up expecting to hear jazz or something so we changed it to Ron Sexsmith & The Uncool. Around that time, I had already started recording demos with Bob Wiseman, just solo, and when the band started sounding really good, I brought them into it. And those eventually became the basic tracks for Grand Opera Lane. That album was originally released on cassette only, but years later, it got re-released on CD. It was kind of my dream to make it available that way because the cassette was the thing that finally got me noticed by some of the big wigs down in LA, leading to my publishing deal. After I signed my record deal and put out a few albums, I eventually convinced my manager to re-release it.
Your first album as part of that record deal with Interscope was Ron Sexsmith. It was that album which Elvis Costello held up on the cover of Mojo magazine, raising your profile considerably. How did it feel?
It felt great because the album had come out under the worst possible circumstances. I was on a label that didn't like the record and they wanted me to scrap it and start over. I was considered a "difficult artist" because I wouldn't change it, but I just wanted my record to come out. For the longest time, I felt really alone and it seemed that Mitchell and I were the only two people in the world who liked the record. So when Elvis held it up on the cover, all of a sudden it gave me some credibility in some way. All around the world all these journalists and territories wanted to put this record out. In truth it really saved my career as who knows what would have happened to me if Elvis hadn't come forward like that.
You had breakfast with Paul McCartney in 1996.
Yes, it was on my first real trip to England and due to the Elvis thing I was in all the magazines. In my first week there I played Royal Albert Hall opening for Richard Thompson and toured with Squeeze, whose bassist Chris Difford lived down the road from the McCartneys. We had one Sunday off, so Chris decided to call Paul up and see what they were doing and Paul invited us over for breakfast. It was a surreal moment for me, sitting across the table from Paul and Linda. It's not something you'd expect to happen. During the three hours I was there, we listened to some music and played some guitars together. At that point, Paul hadn't heard any of my music, he had only heard of me because of Elvis. Later he heard my music and liked it, and over the years said some nice things about it.
Ron Sexsmith is sitting in my living room, drinking tea. It's the day his first book of fiction, Deer Life, was released, something he seems to have forgot. "I just remembered," he said, looking up. "My book gets released today!" He then tells me about the time he had breakfast with Paul and Linda McCartney at their farm, in Scotland.
I put this record on the turntable. I love the cover. The colours are just so beautiful. It’s also a terrific record. Ron has one of those voices that is almost flawless. It floats effortlessly above carefully crafted melodies like a bird going from flower to flower. Released two decades into his career, the songs on this LP take on an unfamiliar optimism. The man who is often pegged as a somewhat downbeat balladeer seems strangely content here. “I didn’t realize until we were putting the songs together that this would be more outgoing," he said. "There’s a lot more humour. I mean, there’s even a smiling picture on the cover, which I’ve never had before. I just hope it doesn’t scare the children.”
This record is almost, dare I say, upbeat - although to be honest Ron’s “sad clown” reputation is more a media invention than anything else.
The album opens with Sure As The Sky, which exhibits a taut drumbeat beneath a delicious piano melody, an instrumentation that reminds me of something the aforementioned Mr. McCartney might have recorded
Sexsmith sings, “Sure as the sky is wide / To hold every prayer inside / As sure as the sky is / I know things are looking up / Yes I know things are looking up.” The song is, in a word, beautiful - and the record doesn’t get any worse as the needle works its way in.
Sexsmith is a great songwriter and lyricist and this record (produced by Joe Scott (Wilco, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Foo Fighters) is Sexsmith’s first offering since 2013’s Forever Endeavour. It also feels distinctly like a 1970s record, and Sexsmith's press release states he was inspired by artists such as Phoebe Snow and Gerry Rafferty, who saw their careers peak during that time.
Things slow down a bit on All Our Tomorrows, which is a gorgeous song. "All our tomorrows / And all of our yesterdays / Were days we had to borrow / What has already been repaid,” Sexsmith sings. There's also some tasteful Hammond B3 organ here, which is a nice touch.
This is a heavy-duty, 180-gram pressing. It feels good when you hold it in your hands and it has a nice, clean sound throughout. A very highly recommended recording!
The following is an excerpt from a Record Collector magazine interview, copyright 2020.
You started playing covers in local bars while still in your teens.
I was 17 when I started playing in 1981, doing just everybody else's songs. I did have some songs of my own as I had a band in high school, but the songs weren't really good. And in my hometown, the people there didn't want to really listen to original music, they just wanted to hear all their favourites. Which was why when I did start to write, I moved to Toronto.
That was the catalyst that led to your first self-released album, Grand Opera Lane.
Shortly after I moved to Toronto in '87, I met two people who would have a huge effect on my life. One was Bob Wiseman who at the time was in a band called Blue Rodeo, a very successful Canadian band. He heard me singing on an open stage. The other was Don Kerr who worked at the same courier company as me. Don heard I was a songwriter and knew a bass player he had been jamming with. So we kind of needed each other in a way, as they were looking for songs to play and I was looking for a band. We started rehearsing together calling ourselves The Ron Sexsmith Trio. But people kept showing up expecting to hear jazz or something so we changed it to Ron Sexsmith & The Uncool. Around that time, I had already started recording demos with Bob Wiseman, just solo, and when the band started sounding really good, I brought them into it. And those eventually became the basic tracks for Grand Opera Lane. That album was originally released on cassette only, but years later, it got re-released on CD. It was kind of my dream to make it available that way because the cassette was the thing that finally got me noticed by some of the big wigs down in LA, leading to my publishing deal. After I signed my record deal and put out a few albums, I eventually convinced my manager to re-release it.
Your first album as part of that record deal with Interscope was Ron Sexsmith. It was that album which Elvis Costello held up on the cover of Mojo magazine, raising your profile considerably. How did it feel?
It felt great because the album had come out under the worst possible circumstances. I was on a label that didn't like the record and they wanted me to scrap it and start over. I was considered a "difficult artist" because I wouldn't change it, but I just wanted my record to come out. For the longest time, I felt really alone and it seemed that Mitchell and I were the only two people in the world who liked the record. So when Elvis held it up on the cover, all of a sudden it gave me some credibility in some way. All around the world all these journalists and territories wanted to put this record out. In truth it really saved my career as who knows what would have happened to me if Elvis hadn't come forward like that.
You had breakfast with Paul McCartney in 1996.
Yes, it was on my first real trip to England and due to the Elvis thing I was in all the magazines. In my first week there I played Royal Albert Hall opening for Richard Thompson and toured with Squeeze, whose bassist Chris Difford lived down the road from the McCartneys. We had one Sunday off, so Chris decided to call Paul up and see what they were doing and Paul invited us over for breakfast. It was a surreal moment for me, sitting across the table from Paul and Linda. It's not something you'd expect to happen. During the three hours I was there, we listened to some music and played some guitars together. At that point, Paul hadn't heard any of my music, he had only heard of me because of Elvis. Later he heard my music and liked it, and over the years said some nice things about it.
BONUS TRACK
Ron Sexsmith grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario, and started his firsrt band when he was just 14-years-old. At 17 he started playing at the Lion's Tavern, in St. Catherines, and gained a local following.
He also garnered a bit of a reputation as a one-man jukebox due to his uncanny ability to play almost any song on request.
In 1986 Sexsmith moved to Toronto's Beaches neighbourhood and recorded and released a cassette called There's A Way. He also worked as a courier and befriended Bob Wiseman, who agreed to produce and arrange Sexsmith's next release. But Wiseman's busy schedule meant the album, Grand Opera Lane, would take a while to see the light of day. It was credited to "Ron Sexsmith and the Uncool".
Attention garnered by the song Speaking With The Angel, resulted in a new, self-titled recording in 1995. Elvis Costello heard it and loved it and Sesxsmith later found himself opening for Costello on tour.
In 2002 Sexsmith recorded a cover version of This Is Where I Belong, the title track on a Kinks tribute album of the same name. Other contributors included Bebel Gilberto and Queens Of The Stone Age.
In the years since Sexsmith has seen his songs covered by such artists as Elvis Costello, Feist, Rod Stewart, Emmylou Harris and k.d. lang.
He is also an author, and published his first book in 2017 called Deer Life, which he describes as a grown up fairy tale. The day the book was released, Sexsmith was sitting in my living room drinking a cup of tea. Which was kinda cool.
Ron Sexsmith grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario, and started his firsrt band when he was just 14-years-old. At 17 he started playing at the Lion's Tavern, in St. Catherines, and gained a local following.
He also garnered a bit of a reputation as a one-man jukebox due to his uncanny ability to play almost any song on request.
In 1986 Sexsmith moved to Toronto's Beaches neighbourhood and recorded and released a cassette called There's A Way. He also worked as a courier and befriended Bob Wiseman, who agreed to produce and arrange Sexsmith's next release. But Wiseman's busy schedule meant the album, Grand Opera Lane, would take a while to see the light of day. It was credited to "Ron Sexsmith and the Uncool".
Attention garnered by the song Speaking With The Angel, resulted in a new, self-titled recording in 1995. Elvis Costello heard it and loved it and Sesxsmith later found himself opening for Costello on tour.
In 2002 Sexsmith recorded a cover version of This Is Where I Belong, the title track on a Kinks tribute album of the same name. Other contributors included Bebel Gilberto and Queens Of The Stone Age.
In the years since Sexsmith has seen his songs covered by such artists as Elvis Costello, Feist, Rod Stewart, Emmylou Harris and k.d. lang.
He is also an author, and published his first book in 2017 called Deer Life, which he describes as a grown up fairy tale. The day the book was released, Sexsmith was sitting in my living room drinking a cup of tea. Which was kinda cool.
