Ron Sexsmith has a knack for writing beautiful little songs about simple little moments.
He has a song called ‘Clown in Broad Daylight’ that’s about, well, seeing a clown in broad daylight. Here’s the opening verse: “Standing on the side of the road near the overpass with a sign around his neck that says ‘Carwash, free balloons,’ he’s a clown in broad daylight.”
It’s a great image and at the end he brings it around to a message about the importance of those little distractions: “Everything is alright, for against the backdrop of ordinary life it’s the easy laugh that gets you through your working day and the hogwash.”
And he makes it all sound good in a song.
His song ‘Pretty Little Cemetery’ describes taking a family trip that includes a stop at a graveyard:
And pointing to the graveyard, my boy turns to the old man
And says “this is where you go to when you die, my papa told me so”
The old man said “yes, we know”
He has a ton of these, and one of my favorites is ‘Strawberry Blonde,’ which describes a pretty but troubled little girl he knew as a child. It’s a story song with a bit of a twist ending I won’t spoil here.
Meet Me In Montauk 
Not sure what it is about Ron Sexsmith that fails to inspire me; I’m only now, at 2:15 during a study hall that thankfully has no students this quarter, listening to this song. It may be the fact that he looks more like an employee at Best Buy’s “Geek Squad” than a musician, but I’d like to think I’m not that shallow. The fact that I can’t concentrate on what he’s saying enough to hear the twist three listens later isn’t helping. She has a kid? That’s the twist. I don’t know – maybe my brain is just too fried from dealing with 15 year olds and the threat of Ike all day. It’s a nice enough song; he has a nice enough sound. It’s just that artists like this send me running back to Lyle Lovett and Randy Newman and other familiar favorites đŸ™‚
Boy, that is shallow! Although you bring up an interesting point… why is it that so many artists (particularly female artists) happen to be attractive as well as musically talented?
Is there a huge group of really ugly artists somewhere who make really great music nobody listens to? Who is the ugliest artist you like?
Twist was definitely the wrong word… I just meant that it’s nice to see the girl landed on her feet and has a kid of her own now who (presumably) is having a better time of it. But as you pointed out offline, she could be just as much of a wreck as her mother was.
well, Lyle may be about as ugly a man as they come, and we love him:) Female artists perhaps have a harder time because the record industry, like the Chinese Olympic committee, want their female artists to be as cute as possible. I think an unattractive artist can garner a fair share of fans and critical accolades, but you ain’t gonna see them break through to superstardom if they aren’t also considered attractice. So Garth Brooks becomes a superstar, while Lyle does well, but doesn’t reach that level. Even Springstein didn’t hit stellar stardome until he became super-buff and made a sexually charged Dancing in the Dark Video.
Anyway, on Sexsmith, I never knew what the hell he looked like. I assumed based on his voice that he looked a bit like Paul McCartney…Wrong there! Anyway, I like his songs. He’s another one that I always am pleasantly surprised to hear when he pops up on my random IPod selections.