|
|
News
Latest
Features Under The Radar Monday, March 03, 2008 Acclaimed Canadian Songsmith Ron Sexsmith Returns To Australia To Preview His New Album. By Brian Wise.
If you could convert kudos into sales then Toronto-based singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith would be top of the charts. But as we know, that is not the way the music business works. For nearly 17 years now the eternally youthful looking Sexsmith has been making albums of rare quality.
Elvis Costello has been a long-time supporter, perhaps recognising that Sexsmith’s pop sensibility is often on a par with one of his idols Paul McCartney. In fact, as I have previously declared, Sexsmith’s 2005 album Retriever was the best album McCartney didn’t make that year!
Time Being, released early last year is the tenth album in Sexsmith’s canon and sees him reunited with Mitchell Froom who produced his first three major label albums. The album contains another batch of sparkling songs and some of the most alluring pop music being made by anyone these days.
So far Sexsmith’s songs have been covered by a diverse collection of musicians including The Brodsky Quartet, Mary Black, Rod Stewart, Feist, kd lang and even Nick Lowe (with whom he toured late last year). Steve Earle produced Sexsmith’s 2001 album Blue Boy and Coldplay’s Chris Martin dueted on the song ‘Gold In Them Hills.’
For his Australian tour this month Sexsmith will be working in trio format again – Jason Mercer and Mark Marlash. (Don Kerr, who has toured with him in the past, has a new home studio and family commitments so it will be a younger trio visiting us). It should enable Ron to flesh out the songs to refect their recorded incarnations.
Sexsmith claims that his forthcoming album, as yet untitled, features a horn section and that he would like to be able to feature them but adds that it is not always realistic. I am reminded that when Spoon recently toured here they were joined by the spontaneously combined (and cleverly named) Push Up Brass, so maybe Ron might find some volunteers to help him!
Late last year Sexsmith toured in America as a solo support with Nick Lowe, something he describes as ‘one of my all time favourite tours.’ Lowe had released the superb album At My Age, while his debut solo album Jesus Of Cool has just been re-released to coincide with its 30th anniversary.
“I’ve always been a fan of Nick’s and I always had a feeling that we probably had a lot of common ground,” says Sexsmith. “So it was nice to discover that we do – in terms of the people that we love and the people we don’t love so much.”
“He’s the real deal,” enthuses Sexsmith about Lowe. “He’s the classic songwriter. Pretty much the last four albums he did were amazing. Impossible Bird is probably my favourite. It was just great to watch him every night.
High praise indeed from another great songwriter. Sexsmith noted that there was a lot of crossover in the audience and admits to being chuffed that he got to go on stage with Lowe to sing a Louvin Brothers song.
“I learned from touring with Elvis [Costello] too,” he notes, saying that the recent tour with Lowe was also a learning experience for him.
“It’s funny because he pretty much played the same show every night which is something that I don’t really do that often,” he explains. “But the show really works and I can really understand why. It had a nice flow to it. He’s just a real old school performer. He’s a great guitar player. He’s a really great singer (in terms of his pitch and everything) and there are so many songs to choose from. He could have done a different set every night and everyone would have been happy. It was a class act all around.”
You get the feeling that Sexsmith could easily have been talking about himself – except that he is far too modest to do so. Like Lowe he has carved a path at the edge of the mainstream yet stayed true to his own musical compass. Sexsmith reveals that he had wanted to get Lowe to produce the Blue Boy album back in 2001 but the record company at the time nixed the idea.
“It felt like there were a lot of people really excited about the show,” he recalls of the recent tour, adding that he and Lowe are talking about doing some more dates together in the USA again this April, by which stage Sexsmith’s new album should be out.
The Martin Terefe-produced album is in the can – some of it recorded with a horn section in Cuba – although Ron is not sure what will happen with it afterwards. I mention that his ‘mentor’ Elvis Costello has said that he is withdrawing somewhat from ‘the recording game’ and wants to tour regardless of album releases, just as Dylan does.
“I completely understand,” he confesses. “I’ve been trying to disappear myself for a long time but I can’t afford to do it! I always feel like I’ve got to keep moving. I think if I had the finances that Elvis had I probably would step aside as well. It’s pretty dire out there in terms of record sales – I’ve never been a big seller anyway. You walk through a record store and it feels like you are walking through a graveyard. Still there are all these ‘mom and pop’ record stores where I don’t feel that at all. It feels very alive. We are at a strange period.”
Lucky for us that Sexsmith is still out there touring and we will get to see him again and enjoy this master songwriter before he does step aside which, hopefully, will not be until sometime in the distant future.
Time Being is available through V2.
|