This April, Ron Sexsmith will release his 16th studio album, Hermitage. The Canadian singer-songwriter has been putting out new music at a pretty good clip for 30 years now.
I joined the bandwagon 19 years ago, when an online group of Elvis Costello fans steered me to his 2001 album Blue Boy. I fell hard for that record, and as often happens with introductory albums, it remains one of my favorites of his.
Ron Sexsmith’s Blue Boy comes in at #7 on my list of 2001 albums. This was my first exposure to the Canadian singer-songwriter and remains my favorite of his albums.
Produced by Steve Earle, Blue Boy has a more polished and eclectic sound than Sexsmith’s first few releases. He dabbles in reggae and torch styles, along with his usual quiet balladry and pop rock staples, and manages to make it all sound of a piece.
I recently made playlists for each of my daughters, filled with songs I expected (and hoped) they would like. They have different musical sweet spots, overlapping with my own and a little bit with each other.
My younger daughter, Fiona, shares my love for gentle, melancholy songs. Aimee Mann, Simon & Garfunkel, that sort of thing. So I knew she’d be a perfect audience for my beloved Ron Sexsmith, who has made a career out of those kinds of songs.
‘Here Comes My Baby’ was written by Cat Stevens in the late 60s and first released as a cover by a band called The Tremeloes in January of 1967. Their version landed on both the U.K. and U.S. charts.
According to an uncited (and therefore quite dubious) tidbit on The Tremeloes’ Wikipedia page, the band was signed by their label (Decca) over another English band, The Beatles, who were deemed a bit too far away in Liverpool.
This weekend has offered up one of those weird coincidences that come with true randomness.
Here we have a Beck song followed by a Ron Sexsmith song. The last time I’ve blogged about either of those artists was in November of 2017, when I posted a Beck song followed by a Sexsmith song. I won’t bother calculating the odds but they have to be pretty damn high.
Meet Me In Montauk 