Contemporary Authors

• Deer Life - 2017 University Of Toronto Press, Toronto, ON, Canada

• Amazon -

  Ron Sexsmith is an internationally acclaimed, Juno Award–winning recording artist. He spends most of his time writing songs, touring, and making records. Deer Life was mostly written on the road, during long drives and in dressing rooms and hotel rooms. Ron lives in Perth County, Ontario.

  2008 - Exit Strategy of the Soul

  Ron Sexsmith is a major contemporary writer/artist who has amassed a sizable and consistently enthralling body of work since making his major label debut in 1995 with his self-titled album on Interscope, followed by such eloquent musical gems as Other Songs (1997), Blue Boy (2001), Retriever (2004) and Time Being (2006). Each has its own particular character but is connected to the rest by the overarching intelligence, impeccable taste and understated emotionality of this single-minded voice in the pop-cultural wilderness. As one new fan put it in a comment on iTunes, Sexsmith's music "wins you over with a silk punch." Well put.

  On his ninth album, the cagily titled Exit Strategy of the Soul (with an emphasis on the last word of this provocative phrase), Sexsmith once again brings a provocative new wrinkle to his expansive aesthetic. Informed but not entrapped by soul and gospel music, ornamented by a Cuban horn section and his own gorgeously imperfect piano playing, the album achieves a sort of metaphysical dimension while maintaining breathtaking intimacy.

  Working once again with Swedish-born, London-based producer Martin Terefe, who brought a burnished, Beatlesque lilt to Retriever, the artist finds an unexpected sweet spot in a stylistic and thematic realm he calls "shadow gospel." It's in full flower on such memorable songs as the horn-drenched "This Is How I Know," the aching "Hard Times," the playful "Brandy Alexander" (his first recorded co-write with fellow Canadian Leslie Feist) and the buoyantly humanistic "Brighter Still." Exit Strategy is framed by a pair of evocative instrumentals redolent of Randy Newman's film music, "Spiritude" and "Dawn Anna." It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that these 14 songs not only encompass the gamut of human emotions but do so with psychological acuity and plainspoken poetic grace.

  The album finds Sexsmith at his most soulful — not that he sounds like Al Green. "I don't have that kind of voice," he acknowledges, unnecessarily. "'This Is How I Know' was the first song I wrote for the record," says Sexsmith, "and it felt to me kind of like a gospel tune. As I continued writing, I started getting this vibe that there was a spiritual element to them. One song, 'Poor Helpless Dreams,' predates my first record; I tried recording it over the years and never got a version I was happy with, but lyrically it seemed to fit in with these new ones. 'Brighter Still' was lyrically very positive, and I felt the record needed that kind of song, which is sort of in a Bill Withers mode." He pauses for an aside. "I keep hoping he'll make another record someday."

  None of it was premeditated. "When Martin and I go in the studio, we don't want to repeat ourselves," says Sexsmith. "Retriever was a straight-ahead, '60-style pop album, and in a way this one is even more old-fashioned and rough. But the plan this time was to not have a plan. At the heart of it is some very questionable piano playing by me. The last bunch of records have been mostly written on piano, but when I'm working with Mitchell [From, the keyboard-playing veteran who produced Sexsmith's three Interscope album's and the previous Time Being], I don't really have the nerve to play in front of him. With Martin, I'd played one song on each record on piano, but with this one, I was determined to track the whole thing on piano, because that's how I'd been doing it at home, and at the core of the record, I thought it might be kind of cool to have an element that was kind of unpolished, and have the other musicians play around that. So that became the springboard for the sound of the record, with me banging away on the keys."

  The spirit of spontaneity extended to the lead vocals, although this aspect, too, was unplanned. "Before the band came in," Sexsmith explains, " I would record each song with guitar and voice, and then we'd get everyone in the room and we'd all play along to that — that's when I'd be banging away on piano. I never thought we'd wind up using the guide vocals, but when I went to New York to re-sing the whole record, even though I was singing everything technically better, the guide vocals had more personality. I still worried about it, but I love hearing Dylan records like that, where you can tell he's not getting too fussy about his singing, and I didn't want to get too precious about it."

  The album was near completion at Terefe's Kensaltown Studios in London when, out of the blue, the producer suggested a trip to Cuba to add a horn section. Though the players had been used by Terefe on a project with the Alex Cuba Band — Sexsmith even sang a duet with the bandleader on one track — the artist was initially nonplussed by the idea. But he'd had spent enough time in the studio with Terefe during the course of their three albums together to trust the producer's instincts, and so, with some trepidation, he went along with the idea. He wrote a song on the flight to Havana — which became the climactic "Brighter Still," cut on the spot with a roomful of Cuban musicians.

  "There's certainly nothing Cuban about my music," says Sexsmith with a laugh. "When I heard the horn players running through the first song, I was thinking it was over the top. But when I heard the tracks back in New York, I was really excited; it was a whole other flavor, one that I've never had on a record before. So it didn't make sense to me at first, but now it really makes sense to me when I hear it." Once again, Terefe's instincts were spot-on — because in going to Cuba, they'd somehow located Memphis circa 1968...and just maybe a half acre of heaven as well.

  Here as always, Sexsmith's priority is the song itself. "I want the lyric and the melody to be as flawless as possible," he says, "so I'm always pretty critical of my own stuff. In general, I try to write songs that will stand up by themselves if I'm not there. My heroes are people who could write all different kinds of songs. Lennon could write something really powerful, and be really funny in the next song; Dylan the same way. I feel all sorts of things, and I want the songs to have different character traits."

  As he was writing the songs that would comprise Exit Strategy, Sexsmith realized that what he was feeling was somewhat headier than the psychological terrain he'd previously inhabited. "It was exciting in a way," he recalls, "because I was getting these lyrical ideas that were a bit different for me; they were reaching for something. I wouldn't call it poetry or anything, but I was trying for something that was a little more poetic. And I think that was partly inspired by what's going on in the world. There's something about writing on the piano, too — it has more of a gospel-y attitude, and it puts me in a different place."

  As for his place in the musical universe, Sexsmith says, "Over the years, I've built it up to the point where I have a cult following, for lack of a better term. I don't have a huge following, but for the most part they're very into it. So that's encouraging, and that's really all you can ask for these days. When I got signed, I was already 30, so I never really expected to be filling arenas. I felt that what I was doing didn't really fit in with what I was hearing on the radio. That's why it always confuses me when I hear people saying, 'Why isn't Ron more famous?' It's not that I think a breakthrough album is out of the question, but it's such a mysterious thing. I mean, I just write the songs, and feel really lucky that I have a career.

  "Recently I was in this bookstore," he continues, "and I saw this giant encyclopedia of modern music. So I thought, 'Hmm... I wonder...' I open it up and, sure enough, there I am, right beside the Sex Pistols. So I suppose I have made a mark in my own way. What I can honestly say is that I'm proud of every single song that's ever been on one of my records. I'm not always proud of the production or the singing, but there's not a song that I couldn't play you now and not feel good about it."

  2006 - Time Being

  Ron Sexsmith maps the human heart with surgical skill and great compassion. He offers us hard-earned pieces of wisdom, all set to strong yet gentle melodies and sung unaffectedly, with emotional eloquence and genuine soul. These are his creative signatures, and they have earned the Toronto-based singer/songwriter immense respect from his peers, critics, and a devoted international audience.

  These assets are vividly displayed on Time Being, the latest addition to a formidable catalogue. The Toronto Star recently noted that "Ron Sexsmith has produced a body of quality work that's unequalled in contemporary Canadian music in originality and musical daring." It is no stretch to extend that statement into the international arena, as a vast number of Ron's peers would agree.

  Time Being marks a happy creative reunion with ace American producer Mitchell Froom (Elvis Costello, Crowded House, Suzanne Vega, Paul McCartney). He has played a pivotal role in Sexsmith's career, producing Ron's first three major label albums and offering valuable advice ever since. Their empathy and trust made for a smooth recording process. "It really felt like we hadn't stopped or taken time away from each other," recalls Ron. "I've kept in touch with Mitchell with every record I'd made since, and now I felt I was more on level ground with him."

  Froom assembled some of LA's best players to frame Ron's songs with subtle and sympathetic accompaniment. They include Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello's longtime drummer and a previous Sexsmith sideman), bassist Davey Faragher (Costello, John Hiatt), and guitarist Val McCallum (Jackson Browne, Sheryl Crow), with Mitchell himself adding keyboards. "Those are some pretty serious musicians there," says Ron. "Whenever there was a problem, there was a lot of on the spot troubleshooting and adjusting their parts."

  Problems were rare, thanks to the pre-production work of Ron and Mitchell. "We spent a week on that, then went into the studio. We'd try to get one song done every day, and usually within three or four takes, we'd have something that was workable. I was actually a little concerned that it was going so well," laughs Ron.

  The result is another sparkling collection of songs that range in tone from sad to surreal, melancholy to magical. Time Being is destined to delight both longtime Sexsmith fans and those that have come to the party more recently. Ron's 2004 album, Retriever, marked a major breakthrough for him at Canadian radio, with the tracks "Whatever It Takes" and "Not About To Lose" making a real impact on adult contemporary formats. His material continues to receive solid airplay on the CBC and college radio here, on National Public Radio stations in the US, and on the BBC in England.

  The strength of his songwriting is such that Sexsmith tunes have been covered by artists from genres as diverse as classical (The Brodsky Quartet, Anne Sofie von Otter), Celtic (Mary Black), rock and pop (Rod Stewart, Feist, kd lang, Nick Lowe). Their covers have helped Ron sustain a prolific career.

  "I've always been a bit under the radar so I'm amazed that I've been able to keep making records and to build on what I guess you could call a cult following," he observes. "That seems to grow with each record, so the tortoise approach of slow and steady suits me."

  Ron Sexsmith has so many celebrity endorsers that even Nike are envious. All without any money changing hands either. Check this out for just a partial list: Paul McCartney, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Steve Earle (who produced Ron's 2001 album, Blue Boy), Sheryl Crow, John Hiatt, Bono, John Prine, Radiohead, and Chris Martin (who asked Ron to open many Coldplay tours and dueted on the track "Gold In Them Hills").

  Costello is given credit by Ron as "the man most responsible for getting my first album released overseas. He held it up on the cover of [English music mag] Mojo, calling it his favourite record of 1995, and that generated a lot of interest internationally. He continues to be very supportive, sending me detailed production notes on all of these new songs."

  On the Canadian front, major admirers of Ron's artistry include Diana Krall, kd lang, Gord Downie, Feist, Andy Kim, Sarah McLachlan, Daniel Lanois, and many more. They've all shown their respect by covering his songs, inviting him on tour, or collaborating in some way.

  When a pre-release party for Time Being was held in Halifax over the recent Juno weekend, those lining up to sing their favourite Sexsmith songs included Matt Mays, Dallas Green (Alexisonfire), Jim Cuddy, Allan Doyle and Bob Hallett (Great Big Sea), Damnhait Doyle and Kim Stockwood (Shaye), Tomi Swick, and Bubbles (of Trailer Park Boys fame).

  A multiple Juno nominee over the past decade, Sexsmith has taken home trophies in 1998 (Roots & Traditional Album of the Year for Other Songs) and 2004 (the much-coveted Songwriter of the Year Juno for songs from Retriever). Ron received two more nominations in 2006, for Roots & Traditional album of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for Destination Unknown, the much-praised collaboration with longtime musical comrade Don Kerr. He also played a key part in the Juno-winning World Music Album of the Year, Humo De Tabaco, from the Alex Cuba Band. Ron added guest vocals to the track "Lo Mismo Que You (If Only)," a song that became a UK hit.

  Ron Sexsmith is not driven by a lust for awards, critical acclaim and peer respect. His passion is to keep writing better songs. "Sometimes you hear someone say all the great songs have been written, but it is amazing what can be done with a limited amount of chords and notes. The challenge is to find a melody you can call your own and a fresh point of view on an old theme."

  That noble quest is one he is pursuing with true commitment. For the Time Being, the swelling legion of Ron Sexsmith fans can luxuriate in the warm embrace of another lovely album. There'll be more coming soon!

  Time Being - Track By Track.
  1 - Hands Of Time
  "I always knew that would be the first song. You always look for one to set the tone of the record, and there seems to be a preoccupation with mortality here. I was thinking about time, and how you always hope you have enough to say the things you want to say and to finish whatever you do."
  2 - Snow Angel
  "That was me trying to write an Edgar Allan Poe style telltale heart song. I've done it in the past, with 'From A Few Streets Over' and 'Parable," these little dark cautionary tales. It is basically about a guy haunted by a guilty conscience and the appearance of this snow angel on his lawn every winter. It is about a love that went south or ended tragically."
  3 - All In Good Time
  "It's the first single and actually the last song I wrote for the album. I thought it injected some much-needed levity, as it's very upbeat lyrically. It is rather about hindsight. There are times when we all look back and it may seem nothing was happening, but we see there was a lot of stuff going on that you had to get through to get to this other place. It's more of a message to myself that whenever I feel like I'm stuck in a rut, I just have to be patient. Things will become clearer as I go on."
  4 - Never Give Up
  "This was another late addition. My partner Colleen and I were on our way to Mexico, for my first ever vacation where you just sit in the sun. We were waiting for the cab to take us to the airport and I came up with this on the piano. The whole way to Mexico I had to keep singing it in my head so I wouldn't forget it. I then wrote it entirely on the beach.'
  5 - I Think We're Lost
  "I guess it had to have that bright melody otherwise people wouldn't be able to listen to it! It's about our fear of things that are on the horizon, environmental things, and all the tension in the world."
  6 - Reason For Our Love
  "I find myself writing these kind of songs almost in the vein of the standards I love, like 'Tomorrow In Her Eyes' on Retriever. I have a lot of respect for the tradition of songwriting, and when I write a song like that I'll think ''this would be great for Bing Crosby.' Maybe Michael Buble will do it!"
  7 - Cold Hearted Wind
  "I started messing around on the piano for this. It had more of a gospel thing when I started it, and I was thinking of Johnny Cash. In the last couple of years, I've had a couple of friends that have passed on, which is kind of strange at my age. The song says that this is all swirling around us and you never know when something will come along and turn your whole world upside down."
  8 - Jazz At The Bookstore
  "It was one of the earlier oddball songs I was writing. I didn't want it to sound coy, but it's a bit humorous. I was thinking about the insane coffee culture we have in North America, where you see everyone running down the street with a giant coffee and there's a Starbucks on every corner. I'm totally addicted too. The thing about these places that's a bit strange is that they are sort of white environments, but in the background you are always hearing this great jazz or blues music. It is relegated to wallpaper, but I was thinking about the artists making that music and how at one point it was very dangerous and sexy music."
  9 - Ship Of Fools
  "Living in Canada we are pretty lucky to have been spared all the horrible things happening - the extreme weathers, the wars. It makes me worry that they might be saving something really awful for us. It's easy to remove yourself from it because it is happening over there, but one day it could show up on your doorstep. It has always occurred to me that we are all in this together. Musically, it is probably the lightest song on the album, very much in the 'Yellow Submarine' vein. "
  10 - The Grim Trucker
  "I wish I could have had a Tom Waits type voice for that song, which came off sounding more Beatlesque. I wrote it after Colleen told me that she'd see a truck taking pigs to the slaughterhouse every morning, and it'd bother her. It turned into a song about karma and seemed to fit in with a couple of the more twisted numbers here."
  11 - Some Dusty Things
  "It's one of my favourites on the record. I had been away on a very long tour and no-one had been in the house for a while, so it was all dusty. It's just nice to have a place with all your things in there, and this is about the things we attach ourselves to that give our life meaning, even though they may seem insignificant to other people."
  12 - And Now The Day Is Done
  "It is one of the sadder songs I suppose. I was thinking of a friend who'd passed away and when I started I was also thinking of Elliott Smith. I'd envisioned strings and a choir, but I think Mitchell was right in keeping it to a guitar and voice with a harmonium. I knew going in that this would finish it off, as a fitting way to go off into the sunset."

  2004 - Retriever

  Greetings -

  I wanted to share some insight into my new release, Retriever.

  It was recorded mostly in London last August during what the papers were calling "The BIG Heatwave of 2003". I'm not sure if the weather played a role in the making of this record but I CAN tell you that much of Ed Harcourt's excellent piano playing was recorded while in his underwear. As you may notice I've teamed up with (producer) Martin Terefe again. Unlike the previous record though, this one has more of an up-tempo, electric feel to it, and on a few of the tracks I think I've finally figured out how to write a chorus!! It also features (along with Martin's Swedish pals) a couple of those TRAVIS boys were around (that's Neil on drums on a couple of tracks).

  Lyrically, the album jumps around quite a bit, so I thought I'd go through them briefly, if that's okay.

  HARD BARGAIN is one part love song, one part letter to God...
  IMAGINARY FRIENDS is a sort of cautionary children's song...
  NOT ABOUT TO LOSE is a pretty straightforward track about, um, defiance I guess...
  TOMORROW IN HER EYES is a love song that features another attempt by me on piano...
  FROM NOW ON is a song about vigilance in an age of fear mongering "Prop-Agenda"...
  FOR THE DRIVER is a simple hymn like tune about forgiveness and seeing another point of view...
  WISHING WELLS is more of a rocker written after a night of shockingly bad television...
  WHATEVER IT TAKES is a kind of tribute to Bill Withers (one of my heroes) and lyrically it's about trying hard not to screw up a good thing...
  DANDELION WINE is a very bittersweet tune, and more confessional than I normally like to get but felt it necessary to write somehow...
  HAPPINESS kicks around the idea of pursuing something we're already in possession of...
  HOW ON EARTH is one of the most romantic songs I've ever written (probably not for the cynical)...
  And lastly, I KNOW IT WELL is a direct lyric about reassurance...
  Well, that's about it for now, I hope my first attempt at writing album notes have been helpful and that you like what you hear. Whenever I send out a new album, I'm always hoping it'll bring me back some good luck or good news, which is partly why I've decided to call this one Retriever so there ya go.

  All the best in 2004,
  Ron Sexsmith

• Wikipedia -

  Ron Sexsmith
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Ron Sexsmith
  Ron Sexsmith at the Faraday Music Festival 2011.jpg
  Sexsmith in 2011
  Background information
  Birth name Ronald Eldon Sexsmith
  Born 8 January 1964 (age 54)
  St. Catharines, Ontario Canada
  Genres Pop, folk
  Occupation(s) Musician, Songwriter, and Author
  Instruments Vocals, guitar, piano
  Years active 1978–present
  Labels Warner Bros.
  Associated acts The Uncool
  The Kelele Brothers
  Website ronsexsmith.com
  Ronald Eldon "Ron" Sexsmith (born 8 January 1964) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario.[1] He was the songwriter of the year at the 2002 Juno Awards. He began releasing recordings of his own melancholic pop material in 1985 at age 21, and has since recorded fifteen albums. He was the subject of a 2010 documentary called Love Shines.[2]

  Contents
  1 Early life
  2 Career
  2.1 Collaborations and covers
  2.2 On film
  2.3 Authorship
  2.4 Acclaim
  3 Style
  4 Personal life
  5 Discography
  5.1 Albums
  5.2 Other contributions
  5.3 The Kelele Brothers
  6 References
  7 External links
  Early life
  Sexsmith grew up in St. Catharines and started his own band when he was 14 years old.

  Career
  Sexsmith was seventeen when he started playing at a bar, the Lion's Tavern, in his hometown. He gained a reputation as "The One-Man Jukebox" for his aptitude for playing requests. However, he gradually began to include original songs and more obscure music which his audience did not favour.[1] He decided to start writing songs after the birth of his first child[3] in 1985. That same year, still living in St. Catharines, he collaborated on recording and releasing a cassette, Out of the Duff, with a singer-songwriter friend named Claudio. Side one of the cassette contained five songs written and performed by Sexsmith; side two featured Claudio.

  A year later, Sexsmith and his family moved to Toronto, living in an apartment in The Beaches neighbourhood. Still in 1986, Sexsmith recorded and released the full-length cassette There's a Way, which was produced by Kurt Swinghammer.[4][1] Meanwhile, he worked as a courier, and befriended Bob Wiseman whom he met at an open stage. They became friends, and Wiseman agreed to produce and arrange Sexsmith's next release in between his tours with the band Blue Rodeo. Because of Wiseman's busy schedule, work on the album stretched out over several years.

  After the album, Grand Opera Lane was rejected by several Canadian labels, the pair released it independently in 1991. Grand Opera Lane was credited to "Ron Sexsmith and the Uncool"; the backing band was Don Kerr and Steve Charles, and also featured Sarah McElcheran (horn arrangements) and Kim Ratcliffe on electric guitar. On the strength of this album, and the attention garnered by the song "Speaking with the Angel", Sexsmith earned a contract which led to his self-titled album in 1995. The album was praised by Elvis Costello, for whom Sexsmith later opened.[5]

  Sexsmith in November 2010
  Between 1997 and 2001, Sexsmith released three more albums, and then Cobblestone Runway in 2002.[4] Retriever, his next album, is a more pop-oriented album and is dedicated to Elliott Smith and Johnny Cash. In 2004, he performed at the RuhrTriennale in the concert series Century of Song hosted by Grammy Award-winner Bill Frisell.

  On 1 May 2001, Sexsmith performed "Just My Heart Talkin'" on the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland musical showcase, alongside R.E.M., Orbital, India.Arie, and Clearlake. Holland backed him on piano. It was his second appearance on the show. He began to have some radio success, particularly on Canadian adult oriented radio.[citation needed]

  In 2002, Sexsmith recorded a cover version of "This Is Where I Belong", the title track for a tribute album called This Is Where I Belong – The Songs of Ray Davies and the Kinks, and including contributions from Damon Albarn, Bebel Gilberto and Queens of the Stone Age, among others. In 2006, he performed at the Halifax Pop Explosion.[6]

  On 16 June 2011 Sexsmith and his band performed the Kinks' song "Misfits" with Ray Davies at the Meltdown Festival in London, England. The same year, he won a songwriter of the year Juno Award for "Whatever it Takes".[7] and a Canadian Indy Award.[8]

  In 2011, the album Long Player Late Bloomer was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize.

  Sexsmith's 14th full-length work, the album Carousel One, was released in March, 2015.

  In 2017, Sexsmith published his debut novel Deer Life with Dundurn Press. It was well received and Publishers Weekly wrote that the "novel has much the same effect as his music, conveying uncertainty with fearlessness and heart."[9]

  Collaborations and covers
  Sexsmith has collaborated with many artists. Sexsmith sang on "An Elephant Insect" which appears on the 2003 Shonen Knife album Heavy Songs. In 2005, he released a collection of songs recorded with drummer Don Kerr during the production of Retriever, called Destination Unknown. Also in 2005, Sexsmith sang on the track "Song No. 6" by Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun, which featured on her album A Temporary Dive and again on her Duets album later the same year. In 2006 he performed a duet of "So Long Marianne" with Leonard Cohen in Yorkville, Toronto. In 2014 he wrote and sang a duet together with Dutch singer-songwriter Marike Jager, the song "Don't you" featured on her album The Silent Song.

  Sexsmith's songs have been performed and recorded by a number of well-known musicians, including Elvis Costello, Feist, Rod Stewart, Emmylou Harris [10] His song "Secret Heart" has been covered by Rod Stewart, Feist, and Nick Lowe. Sexsmith co-wrote "Brandy Alexander" with Feist—versions appear on Sexsmith's Exit Strategy of the Soul, and on Feist's album The Reminder. A version of Sexsmith's "Whatever It Takes" appeared on Michael Bublé's 2009 album Crazy Love.[citation needed]

  In 2004, fellow Canadian singer-songwriter k.d. lang covered Sexsmith's song "Fallen" on her album Hymns of the 49th Parallel. He also wrote the title song of Emmylou Harris' 2011 album, Hard Bargain.[citation needed]

  In 2010, Sexsmith appeared on "Liberace", a track off the album Vaudeville by Canadian rapper D-Sisive. In 2012 his song "Gold in them Hills" was included on Katie Melua's album Secret Symphony, and "Right About Now" was covered by Mari Wilson on the album "Cover Stories".

  In 2012, Sexsmith appeared on Lowe Country: The Songs of Nick Lowe, a Nick Lowe tribute album, where he covered Lowe's 1994 song "Where's My Everything?".[11]

  Sexsmith sang the lead vocal on a song from Ryan Granville-Martin's 2013 album Mouthparts and Wings which features a different vocalist on each song.[12]

  On film
  Sexsmith is the subject of the film Love Shines, directed by Douglas Arrowsmith and produced by Paperny Films. Love Shines premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2010.[13]

  Authorship
  Sexsmith has a book that was released on September 16, 2017, called Deer Life. It has been described as a "grown up fairy tail" by Sexsmith himself. Deer Life is Sexsmith's first effort as an author.

  Acclaim
  As well as being a critically acclaimed[by whom?] songwriter and musician, Sexsmith has a healthy group of world class musicians who appreciate his work including Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Chris Martin, Elton John, Ray Davies, Steve Earle, Bob Rock, and Sheryl Crow.[citation needed] Ron also has a loyal fanbase called the Ronheads.

  Style
  His first five albums are generally melancholic pop folk with elegant melodies, accentuated use of guitars and economic application of other instruments. On his sixth album, Cobblestone Runway, producer Martin Terefe supplemented this style with, among other things, synthesizers, back-up singers, gospel choirs, and string sections.[14] Long Player Late Bloomer is considered his most pop-influenced album, which also happens to be his most commercially successful. His two latest albums, Carousel One and The Last Rider are more rock and roll albums that take Sexsmith back to the music of his childhood.

  Personal life
  Sexsmith has two children (Christopher and Evelyne) with his former wife, Jocelyne.[15] Their fifteen-year marriage ended in 2001.[14]

  Sexsmith's partner, Colleen Hixenbaugh, is also a musician. She is a member of By Divine Right, half of the duo Jack and Ginger,[16] and the duo Colleen and Paul with Paul Linklater.

  Discography
  Albums
  1986: There's a Way (Self-released cassette)
  1991: Grand Opera Lane (Linus Entertainment, produced by Bob Wiseman, with The Uncool)
  1995: Ron Sexsmith (Interscope/Warner, produced by Mitchell Froom & Daniel Lanois)
  1997: Other Songs (Interscope/Warner)
  1999: Whereabouts (Interscope/Warner)
  2001: Blue Boy (Cooking Vinyl, produced by Steve Earle and Ray Kennedy)
  2002: Cobblestone Runway (Nettwerk, produced by Martin Terefe)
  2003: Rarities (Linus Entertainment)
  2004: Retriever (Warner)
  2005: Destination Unknown (V2, with Don Kerr, released as Sexsmith & Kerr)
  2006: Time Being (Warner, also released in 2007 by Coppertree Records UK on 180g vinyl)
  2008: Exit Strategy of the Soul (Yep Roc)
  2011: Long Player Late Bloomer (Thirty Tigers/Cooking Vinyl)
  2013: Forever Endeavour (Cooking Vinyl)
  2015: Carousel One (Compass Records)[17]
  2017: The Last Rider (Compass Records)
  Other contributions
  1995: For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson – "Good Ol' Desk"
  1999: Bleecker Street: Greenwich Village in the 60's – "Reason to Believe"
  2002: This Is Where I Belong - The Songs of Ray Davies & The Kinks – "This Is Where I Belong"
  2002: WYEP Live and Direct: Volume 4 - On Air Performances – "Just My Heart Talking"
  2002: Maybe This Christmas – "Maybe This Christmas"
  2003: Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot – "Drifters"
  2004: Beautiful Dreamer - The Songs of Stephen Foster – "Comrades Fill No Glass for Me"
  2006: Our Power – "Love Henry" (with Don Kerr)
  2008: Northern Songs: Canada's Best and Brightest – "All in Good Time"
  2008: Redeye 2008 Holiday Sampler – "Something to Hold On To (At Christmas)"
  2011: This One's For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark - "Broken Hearted People"
  2012: Textuality OST – "Since I Don't Have You"
  2012: Lowe Country: The Songs of Nick Lowe - "Where's My Everything"
  The Kelele Brothers
  Escape from Bover County (Gas Station Recordings)
  Has-Beens & Wives (Gas Station Recordings)

• London Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jan/17/ron-sexsmith-30-minutes-interview

  Ron Sexsmith: 'I had girlfriends in different cities … it was stressful'
  By Tim Jonze
  The Canadian singer-songwriter on women, wine, and unwittingly ending up with Chris Martin on his album
  Tim Jonze @timjonze
  Thu 17 Jan 2013 15.50 GMT First published on Thu 17 Jan 2013 15.50 GMT
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  Ron Sexsmith
  'Some of my songs are written at the laundromat' … Ron Sexsmith
  Hi Ron, how are you?

  I'm good but it's very cold here. I'm playing here [at St Pancras Old Church] tonight so I hope it warms up later.

  Your new album, Forever Endeavour, is your 13th. Are you superstitious?

  Some people were talking about this the other day – it's 2013, my 13th album. I hadn't even thought about it. My wife's superstitious but she hasn't mentioned it yet.

  When you're coming back with another album do you ever say to yourself: "I'm bringing Sexsmith back?"

  [Laughs politely] Yeah, you know I think a journalist used that once for their headline … "He's bringing Sexsmith back!" (1) But I have enough of my own bad puns already. I noticed Justin Timberlake's got another new record out. He was trying to do it like David Bowie, right? I share my birthday with Bowie so when he put that track out it was like the best birthday present for me! I just love that song – it seems really honest and moving. A lot of pop music these days is just frivolous and all about dancing or whatever so to have a song like that come out … I just hope some musicians will hear it and try harder to grow up a little. I mean, even Beyoncé had a song called It Sucks to Be You (2) or something like that!

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  Surely as a songwriter you must think Beyoncé has some great songs?

  Oh yeah, I think she's great! One of my favourite songs is [Destiny's Child's] Survivor. That's like my theme song! We used to do it in soundcheck. It just upsets me that so many popstars, especially female ones, are always trying to hang on to youth all the time.

  You've described this new album as having the "spectre of death" hanging over it …

  I'm not sure I said that (3). This past year? They found a lump in my throat and I went to the doctor … it just became this period of going for tests and waiting for results. In Canada we have a good healthcare system but you do have to wait weeks to get a Cat scan so it can make you freak out a bit.

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  What have you learned from two decades of releasing albums?

  That you don't really make any money. At least I don't! But then a lot of people who I knew that made money in the 90s didn't go on to make many albums. So in a way it turned out how I wanted.

  How important is a good song title?

  I like song titles that are conversational. Sometimes I'll just hear a phrase and be amazed nobody's written a song with that title. A lot of the ones from the 20s or 30s would take a common expression like Nice Work If You Can Get It and make it into a song title. Lyrics are the hardest part for me. At the same time, I don't think I write any songs where you'll be scratching your head wondering what I'm singing about. I do think there are a lot of songwriters who get away with murder when it comes to lyrics. All that stream of consciousness stuff … it drives me nuts! I get the impression they're just singing stuff off the top of their head, but it's much harder to write the kind of lyric that Johnny Mercer or Cole Porter would write. You know, where there's no wasted words.

  There's a song on the new record called Me Myself and Wine …

  My publishers are always sending me on trips to write with other people, so this one time they sent me to Nashville. You don't want to turn up empty handed, so in advance I wrote down a load of titles in advance. But when I played this guy Me, Myself and Wine he thought I was just making fun of country music, so in the end I just used the song for myself. It's pretty simple – it's just about listening to music with a good glass of wine.

  What's the best wine for listening to music?

  I'm not an expert but lately I've been drinking these Argentinian Malbecs. They taste great. I don't know if that just means it's wine for dumb people (4) but whatever it is I like them. At the end of my tour last year my band surprised me with this big crate of maybe 25 bottles of vintage red wine from different countries. It was supposed to be for special occasions but my friends came over one night and they ended up going down a bit too easily.

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  What would you be doing if you hadn't become a songwriter?

  I shudder to think sometimes. I was pushing 30 when I got signed. I didn't think it was ever going to happen for me.

  You've always been slightly under the radar of the mainstream. Are you desperate for a hit?

  I think the movie (5) made it seem like I was desperate for a hit, but it really wasn't about being famous or anything, it was about me trying to keep things going. The same way as if you've got a business and you're working out how to hold on to it when things aren't going so well. You've got to find a way to make the customer happy.

  You have a long list of famous admirers – Elton John, Elvis Costello, Ray Davies. How important is that to you?

  It's a consolation prize, I guess. It's funny because I worked with Bob Rock on my last album (6). He's worked with all these people like Bon Jovi and he's almost the opposite of me. He's played huge stadiums but what he wants most of all is respect. He wants to be like Bruce Springsteen or whatever. So it's a grass-is-greener thing. But I never expected I would meet people like Elvis Costello or Ray Davies so that's a dream for me.

  Chris Martin sings on a version of your song Gold in Them Hills. I heard that he didn't ask permission, he just went into the studio and added his vocals

  Yeah! Well, it wasn't so much him … I was touring when my record was being mixed in LA and the producer asked Chris to replace my piano part, because I'm a terrible piano player. That's how it started, but he ended up singing on the record. I wasn't around at the time so they couldn't ask my permission. It sort of bothered me that they sent me this CD with "Gold in Them Hills Remix" written on it and I didn't even know who it was singing. I thought it was me at first, but it didn't sound like me. It took me a while to get anyone on the phone to explain who it was. Obviously the record company were desperate for me to release it once they knew it had Chris Martin on it.

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  Michael Bublé and Katie Melua have covered your songs. Is there anyone you wouldn't want to sing them?

  That's a good question. Maybe if Maroon 5 did one I wouldn't like it. Then again, who knows?

  You used to perform covers yourself as a "one-man jukebox" – could you still do that?

  Oh definitely. I have so many songs in my memory. It's like an idiot savant thing … only without the savant part. I can't remember anybody's name or anything like that yet I know so many song lyrics it's crazy. I could get up tonight and do an hour of nothing but Bob Dylan songs. I could do that with anybody I like!

  Where does the inspiration for a song come from?

  It's always different. With a song such as Nowhere Is on the new record, I just had the phrase "Now I know where nowhere is" in my head and I liked it. That song's about meeting my wife and all the stupid things I was doing before I met her.

  What kind of things?

  Oh you know, the fooling around. I did a lot of that. I was 21 when I became a dad so I spent my 20s putting the kids to bed and stuff. So when I got a record deal … I mean, I'm not like Brad Pitt or anything, but there would be girls in, say, Norway who had heard my record and already made up their mind that they liked me. So you show up there and there she is … this was kind of the situation everywhere I went. So for a while I had girlfriends in different cities and was juggling all of that. I mean, I'm glad I got to experience all that but it was very stressful. When I met my second wife Colleen it made me realise that the fooling around was nowhere for me.

  Is it hard documenting personal things on record, knowing that people involved will hear it?

  It's hard being in a relationship because when you're working on a song you don't want to be tip-toeing around things. Sometimes my wife will shout from the other room: "What was that you said?"

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  Does she really do that?

  Oh yeah. And she'll want to know what the song is about!

  When else does inspiration strike?

  Sometimes it will be walking down the street and just overhearing a snippet of conversation. Some songs are written at the laundromat while my clothes are being washed. That's how I wrote Jazz at the Bookstore. I had the whole lyric done by the time my clothes were dry. All I had to do was fold them up and figure out what to do with the words.

  Agatha Christie did say that the best time to come up with ideas was when you were doing the dishes …

  Definitely.

  Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way, but I always worry about the state of her dishes …

  Probably not good! I found when I was a courier I wrote a lot of songs, too. When you're doing anything that's not taxing on the brain your mind wanders. I wrote Secret Heart when I was a courier, out delivering packages. If you're open to writing 24/7 you'll get more songs.

  Let's end on your name – it's quite an exceptional rock'n'roll name?

  What, Ron?

  Ha, yes … well actually the Ron does clash brilliantly with Sexsmith.

  One of the big regrets of my life is not going with my middle name, Eldon. I think Eldon Sexsmith sounds great, but I sort of chickened out. I always thought Sexsmith was an English name but my brother traced it back to 1770 or whatever and thinks it's an Irish name. In Canada there's a town called Sexsmith and we used to always drive past a gas station called Sexsmith Gas Station, so there are more of us out there.

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  What is a sexsmith?

  I think it comes from Sixsmith and has something to do with making knives.

  This question is actually on Yahoo answers with three responses. Do you want to know what the public thought it meant?

  Go on

  Answer one: a prostitute or pimp.

  OK.

  Answer two: When you've broken your penis you take it to a sexsmith who mends it by sticking it in a fire then pounding it with a hammer and anvil.

  Right …

  And finally … someone who is so good at sex that they possibly make it their job.

  That's what it says? It's definitely a hard name to live up to. It gives the impression that you're supposed to know what you're doing. But, well, who really knows what they're doing?

  Footnotes
  (1) So not just a terrible joke but an unoriginal one too … Back to article

  (2) Beyoncé's Best Thing I Never Had features the lyric "I bet it sucks to be you right now" Back to article

  (3) Er, you did in your own press release, Ron … Back to article

  (4) Not at all, Argentinian Malbecs are fantastic Back to article

  (5) Acclaimed Ron Sexsmith documentary Love Shines, which came out in 2010 Back to article

  (6) 2011's Long Player Late Bloomer Back to article

• Now Toronto - https://nowtoronto.com/music/features/ron-sexsmith-is-sad-about-leaving-toronto/

  Ron Sexsmith is sad about leaving Toronto
  Thirteenth album The Last Rider is the acclaimed singer/songwriter's most Toronto album yet and a farewell to the city

  BY SARAH GREENE APRIL 25, 2017 3:24 PM
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  Ron Sexsmith
  Ron Sexsmith

  RON SEXSMITH at the Danforth Music Hall (147 Danforth), Friday (April 28), doors 7 pm, all ages. $36. ticketmaster.ca.

  The cover art for Ron Sexsmith’s 13th album, The Last Rider, features the bard outside the Tragically Hip’s Bathouse Studio surrounded by his band members.

  They include keyboardist Dave Matheson, guitarist Kevin Lacroix, bassist/banjo player Jason Mercer and drummer Don Kerr, who has played with Sexsmith for 30 years come December, the anniversary of their first gig together at the Sunwheel Courier Company Christmas party. Everyone sings backup vocals and chipped in on synths.

  Why this is notable is because after two decades of acclaimed albums made with high-profile producers, The Last Rider is basically Sexsmith’s first band album. (You might count 2005’s Destination Unknown, made by Sexsmith & Kerr, or 1991’s Grand Opera Lane, credited to Sexsmith and the Uncool and produced by Bob Wiseman.)

  The reasons for the band approach were many. For one, Sexsmith finally felt comfortable enough with his touring band. Kerr says things really gelled their last time out.

  “I’ve never seen Ron happier. Cuz he’s not that comfortable generally, with anything,” he says with a laugh. “He’s comfortable when he’s playing guitar, singing, writing songs, but he worries about being late for flights and getting stuck in traffic.”

  Secondly, they were inspired by Elton John’s band.

  “There’s this golden period of about six or seven Elton John albums,” says Sexsmith. “Any of those records from 73 to 76 or 77.”

  “[The Last Rider] is kind of like an epic, classic Elton John album,” adds Kerr. “There’s strings and horns and guitar solos trading back and forth.”

  Lastly, Sexsmith couldn’t afford to hire producer Martin Terefe, whom he’d originally intended to work with.

  “We just couldn’t come up with the money for it,” says Sexsmith. “Which turned out to be a good thing. The money [Warner gave us] to make the record was generous, but Martin’s fee would have eaten up the whole thing before we even got to the studio, so Don said, ‘Well, why don’t we produce it?’ And I’ve been around producers my whole life, so I kind of know the drill.”

  A feast of 15 songs (16 on the vinyl version), The Last Rider was recorded in less than a week at the Bathouse, with Kerr adding on backup vocals later. Strings were arranged and performed by Drew Jurecka and horns by Tom Richards, Rebecca Hennessy and Roslyn Black. Howie Beck mixed it.

  That all makes for a very Toronto album.

  Ironically, it comes at time when Sexsmith, a long-time fixture in the Toronto scene, has relocated to Stratford, where he and his wife, Colleen Hixenbaugh (By Divine Right, Colleen and Paul), recently bought a house.

  “I never could have afforded it in Toronto,” says Sexsmith. “So it’s kind of surreal when I wake up. I’ve never owned anything before.

  “It sort of looks like Downton Abbey. It’s far off the road, it’s got this stately driveway lined with trees on both sides. And it has this cool addition off the garage that looks like a swingin’ Burt Bacharach party room, with a fireplace and wall-to-wall carpeting. Joel Plaskett and his band were here the other night until 4 in the morning.”

  Despite his excitement, he was reluctant to leave Toronto and the house that he and Colleen had rented for over a decade on Bellwoods Avenue.

  “That very final day I closed the door for the last time I thought, ‘Well, I’ve written six albums in this house, turned 40, turned 50 and wrote a novel [Deer Life, due out in September through Dundurn]. That’s a lot of living in one house.’ So I got a bit emotional.”

  Though Sexsmith didn’t realize it as he was writing them, some of the best songs on The Last Rider are thematically linked reflections on childhood (Breakfast Ethereal and Radio). Meanwhile, gently hand-drummed Shoreline addresses the discussions Sexsmith and Hixenbaugh were having about leaving Toronto – “I’m blown away by how personal that one is,” says Kerr – while West Gwillimbury, which started out as a bit of a joke, foreshadowed leaving the city.

  “I thought it sounded like a fairy tale name and I made a mental note to write a song about it,” Sexsmith says. “As I was working on it, I just started imagining it as if it were heaven, someplace where I don’t grow old and there’s no pain and I’m on my front porch playing guitar, like, forever.”

  The most poignant, beautiful song, final track Man At The Gate (1913), is based on a photograph of Trinity Bellwoods from over a century ago. Sexsmith says it’s his favourite on the album, and was Beck’s, too.

  “I almost felt when I was writing it like Stephen Foster or something,” Sexsmith reflects. “I was writing about this postcard, but afterwards I realized I was really writing about myself, you know, leaving Toronto.

  “I’m like the man at the gate a hundred years later. I was the guy standing there who’s not standing there any more, so I just started seeing it from that perspective. It’s my farewell Toronto anthem.”

• Globe and Mail - https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/ron-sexsmith-never-in-fashion-and-never-out-of-style/article34751056/

  Ron Sexsmith: Never in fashion, and never out of style

  BRAD WHEELER
  PUBLISHED APRIL 19, 2017
  UPDATED APRIL 19, 2017
  Sitting on the deck upstairs at Toronto's Drake Hotel, Ron Sexsmith talks about the Sadies, those rugged alt-country psychedelians. "I always felt I wasn't cool enough to hang out with them," says Sexsmith, a classic singer-songwriter who doesn't seem to know that being uncool is hip today. His new album is The Last Rider, a collection of wistful, melodic tunes he worries are out of fashion as well. "Maybe I'm square," he says with a shrug. Maybe. But low-key self-deprecation, like hummable Sexsmith, is always in vogue.

  I've always found your mellowness incredibly comforting. That's your thing. But on this new album, you seem to be a bit more direct with your consoling.

  I hope it's comforting. It's mostly for my own head, though. The first song, It Won't Last For Long, it's from a friend to a friend. I've always liked songs like that, like Lean on Me by Bill Withers. Worried Song, on this album, is the same. I think it's a general feeling that's out there now. It just felt better singing that song.

  Take a sad song and make it better, right?

  Yeah. Ever since Cobblestone Runway [from 2002], I've tried to write more hopeful songs. I was getting labelled as a sad sack, which I never really felt was accurate. But I wanted to write songs like Former Glory and things that were for my own head.

  But your fans, in a way, see you, with your music, as a friend, don't you think?

  Well, for myself, when I hear a new album from someone I admire, I'm always excited to hear how they're doing and what they have to say at that point in their life.

  Okay, tell me about what's going on with your life. What's Shoreline about?

  That one I wrote for my wife. We were having these conversations. She wanted to live by the ocean, and I thought, 'What am I going to do, I'm a city guy.'

  So, the shoreline is literal? I took it as a metaphor.

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  It works both ways. It's trying to find a way you can exist where you're both happy. It's about trying to find a compromise, which is what we've done now, with our move to Stratford, from Toronto.

  Let's move on to the song Radio. You're disillusioned with pop music, is that fair to say?

  I hear a lot of affectation in the way people sing now. It all sounds clubby. It doesn't move me in any way. There's nothing nourishing about it lyrically. But maybe I'm not supposed to like it.

  So, what do you listen to instead?

  My favourite music is probably '50s rock and roll. I don't sound like that, but I'm mostly listening to the '50s channel on my satellite radio. I love Buddy Holly records and all the doo-wop stuff. It swings. It's unpretentious. And it sounds better to me than some of the '60s stuff did. In the '50s, they had the lab coat guys. They knew how to mic things. In the '60s, the drugs came. Things got loosey-goosey.

  So what about the future, with your line, 'they've picked all the berries that grew on blueberry hill.' Do you believe that, no more berries left?

  I was just happy to get Blueberry Hill in a song, you know. I listen to Fats Domino, but the late '60s and the early '70s was my sweet spot. Those are my wonder years. Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman. You're not going to get that from Katy Perry. But, yeah, Blueberry Hill. I think there are some blueberries left. I actually do.

  Ron Sexsmith plays Danforth Music Hall on April 28. Tour info: ronsexsmith.com/tour

• Exclaim! - http://exclaim.ca/music/article/ron_sexsmith_pens_dark_deer_life_fairy_tale_novel

  ​Ron Sexsmith Pens Dark 'Deer Life' Fairy Tale Novel
  By Sarah Murphy
  Published Jul 18, 2016
  ​Ron Sexsmith Pens Dark 'Deer Life' Fairy Tale Novel

  Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith is set to put his writing skills to the test in a new arena. In addition to his Juno Award-winning records and award-worthy dad jokes on Twitter, Sexsmith will be able to add published author to his list of accomplishments next year.

  He'll make his literary debut with a novel titled Deer Life, which is due out in late 2017 through Dundurn Press.

  According to a press release, the book is a "fantastically grim fairy tale" that tells the story of a boy who accidentally runs into trouble with a witch. Humorously weaving through "witchcraft, bullying, revenge, and a mother's undying love" — plus a mysterious bowler hat — the idea for the story originally came to Sexsmith in a dream.

  "Given his brilliant lyrical ability, I wasn't surprised to see him ably shift into writing engaging, funny, yet poignant prose fiction," said Dundurn Press acquisitions editor Shannon Whibbs. "It was a pleasure to read an early draft of Deer Life. It made me laugh, it made me think, and I was caught up in the fairy-tale world he has created and described so evocatively."

  Sexsmith's most recent full-length musical release arrived as last year's Carousel One LP.

• ​Ron Sexsmith Website - http://www.ronsexsmith.com/

  2017 - The Last Rider

  Ron Sexsmith’s status as one of the greatest songwriters of his generation has never been in doubt, even from the moment he released his self-titled major-label debut album in 1995. His career arc since then has in some ways been a study in how that pure ability has been handled in the studio. On his 12 albums, Sexsmith has worked with some of music’s most celebrated producers—Daniel Lanois, Mitchell Froom, Tchad Blake, Ray Kennedy, Martin Terefe, Bob Rock and Jim Scott. With all of that experience, it would stand to reason that Sexsmith has learned a thing or two over the years about how to make a record.

  That thought indeed struck him as the Toronto-based Sexsmith prepared to make his thirteenth solo album, The Last Rider, where for the first time he, in tandem with his longtime collaborator Don Kerr, has taken matters into his own hands as a producer. For fans, that fact alone should heighten the listening experience in terms of getting to hear Sexsmith’s complete musical vision for the first time. However, it’s not much of a surprise that, as an artist whose music never fails to draw out raw emotions, Sexsmith the producer has made The Last Rider perhaps the most intimate and welcoming album in his catalogue.

  Over the course of its 15 tracks—most clocking in at about the three-minute mark—The Last Rider is by turns romantic, bittersweet, uplifting and humourous, as might be expected. But what is most striking is how naturally the songs flow together, and how at ease Sexsmith sounds, accompanied by his trusted touring band who know his creative process perhaps better than anyone.

  “I did have this wealth of knowledge about recording that I didn’t really realize I had,” Sexsmith says. “And being able to rely on Don’s skills at getting great sounds, and just making sure everything ran smoothly, was essential. I think for a long time I just may have been afraid to produce myself. I mean, if someone ever said to me, ‘I don’t like the way this album was produced,’ I could always say, ‘Well, I didn’t do it.’”

  Working primarily at The Bathouse, The Tragically Hip’s studio near Kingston, Ontario, sessions for The Last Rider were a marked change in approach from Sexsmith’s previous album, 2015’s Carousel One, which was laid down in less than a week in L.A. with a host of the city’s top session stars. While that was not an unfamiliar setting for Sexsmith, and one he admittedly thrives in, it’s not the kind of pressure any artist should be under every time they go into the studio. For The Last Rider, then, it felt right to stay closer to home, and as a result, Sexsmith believes it’s one of his most personal albums.

  “I didn’t plan on it being that way, but as we were assembling the songs, this theme did start to emerge about leaving the city, which my wife and I are going to be doing soon, and other big life changes.” Sexsmith adds, “The album title stems from these thoughts I’d had going into it that this actually might be my last album for a while, just because of how frustrating the music business can be these days. But the way everything played out, it felt a lot more free, so I guess we’ll see what happens.”

  Like one of his main inspirations, Ray Davies, Sexsmith is a rare songwriter able to extract profound meaning from even the most mundane aspects of urban life, while simultaneously lamenting what remains of our simpler past. But always, hope springs eternal. That’s evident from the outset of The Last Rider with “It Won’t Last For Long,” a song that couldn’t be a more appropriate balm for the scars left by 2016. The same can be said of “Dreams Are Bigger,” whose chorus, “If your dreams are bigger than your worries, you won’t have to worry about your dreams,” should particularly appeal to Sexsmith’s Twitter followers familiar with his love of clever wordplay.

  “I think my sound has always been a combination of the folk singers and British Invasion artists I’ve always admired,” he says. “At this point, it’s just second nature for me to write short, melodic songs that say everything you want to say. But having my band totally involved on this album maybe brought out more in the songs than on other recent albums. It felt special, anyway.”

  On the album’s most poignant moments, such as “Man At The Gate (1913),” there certainly is a sense—as with all of Sexsmith’s best songs—that life if often richer than we make it out be, and we should embrace that. In this case, the point is made through a photograph taken a century ago in front of Toronto’s Trinity-Bellwoods park, conveying the message that although styles and attitudes change, we all remain connected through our shared humanity. It all sprang from Sexsmith simply buying a postcard at a shop near his house one day.

  “In the photograph, there’s a man walking by the gates of the park, and you can barely see him, but that’s the kind of thing I easily get obsessed about,” he says. “I couldn’t stop thinking that that guy could be me 100 years later, and really could be all of us. We’re here for a certain period of time, and we leave behind these traces of who we were that have the potential to inspire people who come along after we’re gone. To me, that’s really beautiful.”

  Although Ron Sexsmith has more music to come that is sure to inspire us, for now The Last Rider is the latest addition to a body of work as impressive as any produced in the past quarter-century. Through truth and simplicity, Sexsmith’s songs help us get closer to the things that make us better people, meaning that an album like The Last Rider is as necessary now as anything he has ever done.

  2015 - Ron Sexsmith – Carousel One

  For Ron Sexsmith, there’s always a trigger to an album, something that sets in motion the songs he’s writing not exactly as a concept, but certainly a theme or feel. His last album, Forever Endeavour, was born of a health scare while its predecessor Long Player, Late Bloomer was born of disillusionment. 2015’s Carousel One, however, finds Sexsmith in surprising territory for a man often pegged as a downbeat balladeer: he’s actually contented.

  “Oh I hope so. Long Player was quite a grumpy record,” Sexsmith says. “It was uptempo musically but lyrically… not so much. I didn’t realize until we were putting the songs together for Carousel One that this would be more outgoing, 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.”

  Self-deprecating almost to a fault, Ron has been a critical success ever since his self-titled debut back in 1995, winning the admiration of major league songwriters such as Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney along the way. Commercial success, however, has not been so forthcoming for the boy from the blue-collar town of St. Catharines, Ontario.

  “Well,” he chuckles, “I guess I was chasing stardom at one point, but then I stopped. To be honest, I think the lack of commercial success has been more annoying to the folks around me. I sometimes get people saying ‘Why aren't you playing stadiums?’ Well, it's certainly no mystery to me why I’m not. It’s just not that kind of music. I really didn’t expect the Long Player album to do as well as it did either. Not that it sold like "Lady Gaga" but it did do pretty wellfor me. It even led to us headlining the Royal Albert Hall in 2013. My career was given a much needed kick in the pants which I didn't see coming. I thought those days were gone for me, but it definitely reawakened a dormant fan base, especially in the UK. Since then, I feel like I've got my career back.”

  Long Player, Late Bloomer was a big, glossy sounding album, helmed by fabled producer Bob Rock, which Sexsmith followed up with the more acoustic Forever Endeavour in 2013. Carousel One however, sits somewhere between, with fulsome production but minus Bob Rock’s airbrushing. The result is a warm, deeply involving set of songs that showcases Sexsmith’s great empathy and occasional sentimentality, but also his often-overlooked playfulness. Although the sound and feel are inspired by ‘70s albums from the likes of Phoebe Snow and Gerry Rafferty, it’s a record that sounds very fresh and modern.

  “That may be because of how quickly we made it,” the singer explains. “I only had the musicians for five days so we recorded 16 tracks in that time. We were recording within 10 minutes of me walking in the door. I’ve never been a fan of being in the studio, but I do love it when the music is actually happening, and those were action-packed days.”

  Producer Jim Scott - introduced to Ron by mutual friend Kevin Hearn from Barenaked Ladies - assembled a seasoned band to play on the album: bass player Bob Glaub, whose previous clients include John Lennon, Lucinda Williams, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, Dolly Parton, Graham Nash and hundreds of others; guitarist Jon Graboff (Norah Jones, Ryan Adams); drummer Don Heffington (Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Lone Justice); and keyboard player John Ginty (Dixie Chicks,Whiskeytown, Neal Casal, Matthew Sweet).

  The relaxed atmosphere undoubtedly spills over into the songs, particularly on the rockier tracks such as ‘Getaway Car’ and ‘Can’t Get My Act Together’.

  “I've been sort of pigeonholed as a balladeer which I never really understood,” Ron says, “maybe I'm not as convincing when I try to ‘rock out’ sometimes. At home I listen to mostly ‘50s radio, I really love the way those songs kinda swing and so that's what I was trying to do on ‘Getaway Car’.”

  Carousel One (named for the luggage retrieval belt at Los Angeles airport where bags off Toronto flights are delivered) is probably Sexsmith’s most diverse album, another “happy accident”. Songs like ‘No One’ came from the idea of attempting to write in the vein of Roger Miller. Opening track ‘Sure As The Sky’ originated as a folky campfire song but it turned into more of a folk/rock number.

  “I was writing that one and thinking of how Judy Collins did the song ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ before The Byrds had recorded it and how they went and turned it into something more anthemic"

  ‘Saint Bernard’ meanwhile, is a tribute to an anonymous family dog from a photograph picked up in a second-hand shop by Ron’s wife, Colleen. It’s the perfect example of how he can make even a wistful, nostalgic song turn with a touch of humour, equating the dog that saves him as his own personal minibar.

  “They’ve always been my favourite type of dog. I was sitting in the kitchen one day playing guitar, I had this melody but no lyrics, so I looked up at the picture and just started singing the opening lines. I guess the album is kind of a travelogue of music that I like which was mostly a happy accident”

  So, here’s to happy accidents; raise a glass to Ron Sexsmith’s Carousel One and his new-found contentment.

  2013 - Forever Endeavour

  In a world of workaday singer-songwriters mired in vacuous self-regard, news of a new Ron Sexsmith record can only gladden the heart of those who care about deftly poetic, gently affecting songs that perfectly distil the pitfalls of being human. Especially when that record pairs him again with the producer who, for two decades, has framed his music in its most sympathetic surroundings.

  In the late summer of 2011, Ron bumped into Mitchell Froom in Los Angeles and gave him a CD of demos he’d been working on over the previous few months. His 2011 album Long Player Late Bloomer had been a liberating pop-rock breakthrough for Ron, but when Froom — producer of Ron's first three albums and of 2006's Time Being — began talking of string and woodwind arrangements, the singer was instantly intrigued.

  "Mitchell's someone I've always looked up to,” Ron says. “They don't really make producers like him anymore."

  The songs Ron had written in the wake of Long Player — returning him as they did to the bittersweet melancholia on which diehard fans have feasted since 1995 — seemed to cry out for a softer, more orchestrated treatment than the gleaming electric sheen of its predecessor.

  "With Long Player, I wanted to make something like Tapestry — just sort of catchy from start to finish," Ron says, "but these were perfect songs to work on with Mitchell. It's probably the most personal album I've made, too, so it felt appropriate to do it with him."

  The two set to work in November 2011 at Froom's Santa Monica studio, temporarily dubbed "Froom and Board" by Ron. Assisting on the sessions were engineer David Boucher and a clutch of seasoned West Coast players that included drummer Pete Thomas, bassist Bob Glaub and pedal steel prince Greg Leisz. Strings were overdubbed afterwards using LA's feted Calder Quartet.

  "There isn't anything on the record that hasn't been written," says Ron. "The bass parts are written, the drums are written, so there was no point at which musicians were just jamming along to songs. I thought that was pretty cool, because I'd never made a record like that before."

  The album's earliest song — and coincidentally its opening track — was written in the immediate aftermath of the Long Player sessions, when for a terrible second it looked as though the record might not get a release at all. Setting Forever's downbeat tone, "Nowhere to Go" was Ron doing the only thing he knew would help: Giving sweet voice to deep despair and finding redemption in that process.

  The second track's title also starts with the word "Nowhere" but is implicitly a more hopeful articulation of pushing up from rock bottom. "'Nowhere Is' reminds me of one of those old Neil Diamond or Glen Campbell songs," Ron says, "and I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in that sort of territory. There's something about the congas and the guitar and the strings, it's a sound you don't often hear anymore."

  The heart of Forever Endeavour, though, is a batch of songs sparked by an unexpected health scare in the summer of 2011, and it's these tracks that give the album its sorrowful gravitas. "In the middle of a tour last year, they detected a lump in my throat, and I had an MRI and the ultrasound," says Ron. "And in the middle of recording this album, I had a CAT scan to see if everything was okay. So I had this period of a few months where I was freaking out about everything, and that probably explains why some of the songs are so philosophical. It was like, 'Either next year I'm going to be battling something or this is the last record I'm going to make'.

  "'The spectre of death was sort of in my head and I was thinking about it all the time until I got the good results. Not that I was panicking, but time started to force itself into my thoughts because I wasn't sure how much of it I had left. There's a few songs that look back, but the big ones are obviously 'Deepens with Time' and 'The Morning Light'. For a period of maybe two months I'd be lying in bed wondering if I had this thing inside that was growing and that was going to get me. I felt like Johnny Mercer, writing all these 'Days Of Wine and Roses' type songs."

  The songs are different responses to the alarming chance that Ron had less time left on earth than he'd assumed. "Deepens With Time" looks back affectingly at childhood memories that make us who we are but also "wound and leave us scarred". "Snake Road" and "If Only Avenue" use the same metaphor to gaze back on paths not taken — or choices not made — but the latter is mid-tempo and boomily regretful where the former is defiantly resolute in its horn-parping blues-rock strut.

  "'Snake Road' is just sort of beating myself up about my behaviour at a certain point in my life," Ron says, "but in a good-natured and hopeful way. I love how it turned out and I loved Mitchell's arrangement, but sometimes you write a song where you wish you had a different kind of voice — more like a John Lennon or something."

  "Back of My Hand" is Beatlishly beautiful in its evocation of déjà vu, whereas "Sneak Out the Back Door" — the only solo turn on the album and its most instantly ingratiating tune — is a finger-picked front-porch singalong about exiting the world with no pomp or ceremony.

  "'Back Of My Hand' sounded almost like something the Rutles might have done," Ron remembers, "so I thought we should try and get it out of that Beatles zone and put it back into whatever my zone is. I started playing it on the Reso-Phonic guitar and it started to come back to my side a little bit more. Again, I was writing it at the time when I had that cancer scare, and people I hadn't seen for a while kept coming up to me and saying hi. And I started to get this weird feeling that I'd been there before and I wondered, 'Is that how it feels when you're dying?' It was the last song I wrote for the album."

  Another of Forever Endeavour's peaks is "Blind Eye", a dreamy reflection on empathy whose spacey strings-and-French-horn intro could have come from Jimmy Webb's "Land's End". "The song isn't pointing the finger at anyone," says Ron. "I just think sometimes, 'Wow, I'm so lucky to have ended up in this country that seems relatively sane compared to some parts of the world where there's all this craziness going on.’ So the song is trying to be aware that people are struggling."

  "Lost in Thought" is dreamier still, cut from the cloth that gave us "Doomed", "Child Star" and so many other Ron masterpieces of serene stillness. Lightening the sometimes sombre mood are "She Does My Heart Good", a bouncy song of marital endearment, and "Me, Myself and Wine", a lighthearted track about what Ron gets up to when Mrs. Sexsmith is not around.

  "'Me, Myself and Wine' is mostly just about my love of listening to records while having a glass of wine," he says. "I remember when people would buy a new album and they'd say, 'Hey, do you wanna come over and listen to it?' People are so busy or so distracted now, but I don't have an iPhone or any of that stuff and I like to get into albums as a whole. There still seems to be this need to document a collection of songs and present them in album form, so I don't know if it'll ever go away. I always tend to write in batches, and it always feels like these are songs that belong together in some way and in some order."

  Ron often saves his best for last, and "The Morning Light" — a magical yoking-together of each day's rebirth with the shadow of the memento mori that none of us can escape — is no exception to that rule.

  After the sugar high that was Long Player Late Bloomer, Forever Endeavour is all about slow-energy release, a collection that sits more seamlessly next to earlier Froom productions like Other Songs (1997) and Whereabouts (1999). Melancholy without being maudlin, spare without being simplistic, Ron's songs are invariably underpinned by an acceptance of life as it actually is.

  "There's so much out there that's really frivolous, and from my very first album I've always tried to write about things in a way that was realistic and grown-up," he says. "Whatever subject you're on, you want to try and tackle it head-on. I think that's how a song is able to resonate with people. If you're going miles out of your way to say something to people, or you're trying to be clever, you're setting yourself up for a letdown.

  "With every album you do, it's just a new batch of songs and you try to find your way into it and find what the best surroundings would be for them. For people who've been following my career for all this time, I guess it will seem like a return to Other Songs or one of those sort of things. But I think I'm a better singer and I think I've gotten a little more accurate with the songwriting. There's a lot of stuff Mitchell used to help me with that I can do myself now.

  "I really do think this is the record I've been trying to make my whole career, but for some reason either I wasn't singing good enough or didn't have the right songs. It really came together this time with the songs and the production and my voice, where I was singing the way I heard in my head. When I handed in the record, the label folks were talking about an 'angle' for the record, and I don't think in terms of 'angles'. I'm just really proud of it."

  Barney Hoskyns

  2011 - Long Player Late Bloomer

  A singer-songwriter acclaimed by a galaxy of artists from Bob Dylan to Elton John, Chris Martin to Michael Bublé, Steve Earle to Lucinda Williams for his insight into the human heart and a melodic purity (to paraphrase admirer Elvis Costello) unheard since the heyday of Paul McCartney, you'll find him straight after the Sex Pistols in any self-respecting encyclopedia of modern music.

  That's as close as Ron Sexsmith has ever got to in-yer-face hard rock.

  Until now.

  For his 11th album, Long Player Late Bloomer, the award-winning troubadour has paired himself with a fellow Canadian, the producer of bone-crunching classics by Metallica, Mötley Crüe and The Cult - the genuinely named Bob Rock.

  "I'd seen the Metallica documentary, Some Kind Of Monster, and I got a good vibe from Bob; he seemed the only sane person working with a band that was falling apart. Even so, I only saw Bob as a hard rock producer.

  "Then, a few years back at the Juno Awards... (Canada's prestigious music awards; Ron so far has two Junos)... I ran into Bob at the curb waiting for a car to take us to one of the after parties. I never wanted the responsibility of producing my own music. I'm always looking for a producer who can help me frame the music in a way that people will get it. 'Know any good producers?' I asked Bob jokingly. He told me he was a fan, but I hear that sometimes and I'm skeptical.

  "But at the same party there was Michael Bublé. Michael had just worked with Bob (on the multiplatinum-selling album, Crazy Love), which came as quite a surprise to me. He told me that Bob was a pop producer and that he would be great for me. That put the idea into my head of sending him the songs to see if there was any interest there. Bob's assistant got right back to my management saying he loved the songs.

  "The hard part then was how to do it, how even to afford it. Because from the movie, I sensed he was a good person and that I could trust him. And I was right."

  The reassuring news for Ron's loyal international fanbase is that Bob Rock's production does full and eloquent justice to another wonderful collection of Sexsmith songs. And the great news for everyone else is that every one of them sounds like an honest-to-God hit you turn up when it pops up on the radio.

  "I've always been trying to make pop records, and all my heroes had hit records. When I was growing up, people I loved like Elton John and Joni Mitchell were essentially album artists who also had hits. My main objective was always to make cohesive albums but a lot of my stuff sounds like what I would like to hear on the radio. I was probably born at the wrong time!"

  Born in a very good year, 1964, Ron grew up in St. Catharines, ON, a paper-mill town 20 minutes' drive from Niagara Falls. Ron was brought up by his mother in low-income family government housing, his largely absent father leaving behind a box of Johnny Cash and Little Anthony And The Imperials singles which were Ron's songbook primers. A daydreamer at school, Ron was selected for a creative writing class and in his high school band played lead guitar.

  Ray Davies was Ron's first and most enduring songwriting inspiration, followed by Lennon and McCartney, Paul Simon, Elton John and, he says "about 19 I started discovering people like Leonard Cohen and Gordon Lightfoot."

  As a singer, Ron admires Harry Nilsson, Bing Crosby, Bill Withers and Charlie Rich, and places himself in that crooner tradition.

  Moving to Toronto, Ron formed a band called The Uncool, and released a cassette, Out Of The Duff. To support himself, Ron got a job as a foot courier, as recalled on the Long Player Late Bloomer song "Michael And His Dad."

  "It's a fictional account loosely based on me and my son, Christopher, when we first moved to Toronto," says Ron. "He was two at the time and I was looking for work. He had to tag along while I was job-hunting. We'd be in the doughnut shop and I'd read the want ads while he was bored out of his mind, wanting to go to the playground. The story of this little urchin following around his dad is kind of a Dickensian story. I've accumulated quite a few story songs over the years."

  With the 1989 birth of his second child Evelyne, Ron found a second income to supplement the courier wage he earned for six years when, hungry for new talent, the label Interscope signed him to a songwriting deal.

  In 1991, the limited cassette release Grand Opera Lane, an album recorded with the drummer of his Toronto band The Uncool, first attracted Interscope's interest. Four years later, the label recognized that not only had they a great songwriter on their books but a singer and guitarist of rare accomplishment too. Ron Sexsmith's 1995 self-titled "proper" debut, produced by Mitchell Froom, represented the cream of nearly 200 songs that had been road-tested for years in the bars of Ontario and was acclaimed by fans from Elvis Costello down as an instant classic, with Rod Stewart one of several artists to cover the first song, "Secret Heart."

  What has followed is a body of work that very few songwriting recording artists, living or dead, can match for consistently sky-high quality. As legendary record producer to artists from Dylan to U2, Daniel Lanois, told Love Shines, the documentary about the making of Ron's new album, Long Player Late Bloomer, "Not a lot of people have Ron's gift: the ability to see a tiny snapshot of a feeling, then expand upon it and deliver a beautiful song. The songs are like Polaroids."

  For the record, this is the full album role call:

  Grand Opera Lane (1991)
  Ron Sexsmith (1995)
  Other Songs (1997)
  Whereabouts (1999)
  Blue Boy (2001)
  Cobblestone Runway (2002)
  Rarities (2003)
  Retriever (2004)
  Destination Unknown (2005, with Don Kerr, released as Sexsmith & Kerr)
  Time Being (2006)
  Exit Strategy Of The Soul (2008)
  Long Player Late Bloomer (2011)
  Among the artists who have covered Ron's songs are: Rod Stewart, Michael Bublé, k.d. lang, Nick Lowe, Feist, The Brodsky Quartet, Curtis Stigers, Anne Sofie von Otter and Mary Black.

  It's a mighty portfolio, one that seemed to finally be validated in 2005 when he won the coveted Juno Award as Songwriter of the Year.

  Though no stranger to the stage and a performer whose concerts are always intimately heartwarming affairs, Ron is naturally shy and ambivalent about public attention, craving validation of his music yet distrustful of success for success' sake.

  "I'm content in general," he says. "I don't drive. I love going to the laundromat. I'm a writer. I go to watch people there. In Canada you can be at the Juno Awards and then return to your rented house like you've turned back into a pumpkin. There are no stars in Canada. We're all poor indie artists or people like myself who make no more than a living. I'm fine with that. I've never been interested in money which is probably why I don't have any."

  Though he had only just married again, to the musician Colleen Hixenbaugh of the Canadian bands By Divine Right and Colleen and Paul, Ron was at a low ebb in the year after his brilliant but under bought 2008 album Exit Strategy Of The Soul.

  "I'd completely lost all my confidence, and I didn't have much to begin with," he recalls. "I'd put on a lot of weight and I was afraid to make a record - I felt, what's the point? A lot of the songs come from that place, even humorously; songs like 'Get In Line' and 'No Help At All' are kind of funny.

  "I wrote a lot of these songs in New Mexico. We know some wealthy people there who let us stay in their guest house. My wife had rented me a guitar - I hate travelling with my own - and I instantly fell in love with it, and played it the whole time I was down there, writing 'Heavenly' and 'No Help At All' and others. There was a piano there but I went nowhere near it. The songs, except for 'Heavenly,' aren't all butterflies and rainbows. But it was also a very romantic time, and songs like 'Miracles' and 'Love Shines' reflect that.

  "Before we went there, I didn't have a single idea. I guess it was because I had nothing else to do. I'd walk from the guest house into town to a coffee shop, and by the time I got there and back I would find I had a song almost finished in my head. I'd then pick up the guitar and figure out the chords.

  "At that point in my life I was almost afraid to make another record. I had a bunch of songs that I thought were good, but I always think that. I was in a funk, and everything pointed me towards Bob."

  With Bob Rock on board as producer with a crack studio band including guitarist Rusty Anderson (Paul McCartney), bassist Paul Bushnell (Elton John, No Doubt), keyboard player Jamie Edwards (Aimee Mann) and drummer Josh Freese (Devo, Nine Inch Nails), Ron came prepared with demos of 22 songs (slightly fewer than usual), from which 13 were selected for album release.

  "Bob was great, a real cheerleader in the studio," enthuses Ron. "He's a calming guy. I never felt stressed out with him. He brought in the best musicians and we worked in the finest studios. It had been a while since I'd felt that. Back when I first came out on Interscope Records, who had money, I was recording in New York and flying to Los Angeles to mix the record, and that's how it felt doing this one. It sounds frivolous but it's a good feeling - like being in the big leagues again.

  "With 'Love Shines', I was trying to write a song like Buddy Holly's 'True Love Ways,'" Ron discusses what sounds like a huge hit single-in-waiting, to be found next to last in the album's running order. "It was originally going to be the first song on the album. Then I heard it after it had been recorded and I thought it felt better near the end, like a showstopper. Like a movie, you don't want all your explosions at the beginning. I was like the director, putting the scenes where I thought they should go.

  "I've made all these Lars von Trier records," he laughs; "I see this record as my action movie!"

  "Musically, this record sounds upbeat but lyrically it's disillusioned," Ron admits. "There is a darkness there, but I didn't realize until I heard it back through the speakers, because at the time I wrote the songs, all sorts of other stuff was going on in my head.

  "Playing it for the record company, someone said it sounded like my happiest album ever. Whoah! Somebody get that man a lyric sheet! But I've always loved people like Nilsson and The Kinks where the music was slightly at odds with the lyrics.

  "Yes, there was a lot of self-doubt and worry," he reflects. "I tend to worry about stuff anyway. But writing songs definitely helps. I'm miserable if I'm not writing songs. When whatever anxiety you're feeling turns into a song, that cancels it out, in a weird way. And when I'm performing the song live, I don't get to revisit the anxiety. Once the song is finished I get to go out and record and play it, and that's the fun part.

  "A lot of my friends go to therapy, but my family are reserved and I can't imagine telling all my troubles to some stranger. I'm lucky that I have the outlet of songwriting. Though in songs you sometimes tiptoe around things so as not to hurt people's feelings, writing songs is very therapeutic for me. I would vote for songwriting over therapy!"

  2009 - Retriever

  Greetings - I wanted to share some insight into my new release, Retriever. It was recorded mostly in London last August during what the papers were calling "The BIG Heatwave of 2003". I'm not sure if the weather played a role in the making of this record but I CAN tell you that much of Ed Harcourt's excellent piano playing was recorded while in his underwear. As you may notice I've teamed up with (producer) Martin Terefe again. Unlike the previous record though, this one has more of an up-tempo, electric feel to it, and on a few of the tracks I think I've finally figured out how to write a chorus!! It also features (along with Martin's Swedish pals) a couple of those TRAVIS boys were around (that's Neil on drums on a couple of tracks). Lyrically, the album jumps around quite a bit, so I thought I'd go through them briefly, if that's okay.

  HARD BARGAIN is one part love song, one part letter to God...
  IMAGINARY FRIENDS is a sort of cautionary children's song...
  NOT ABOUT TO LOSE is a pretty straightforward track about, um, defiance I guess...
  TOMORROW IN HER EYES is a love song that features another attempt by me on piano...
  FROM NOW ON is a song about vigilance in an age of fear mongering "Prop-Agenda"...
  FOR THE DRIVER is a simple hymn like tune about forgiveness and seeing another point of view...
  WISHING WELLS is more of a rocker written after a night of shockingly bad television...
  WHATEVER IT TAKES is a kind of tribute to Bill Withers (one of my heroes) and lyrically it's about trying hard not to screw up a good thing...
  DANDELION WINE is a very bittersweet tune, and more confessional than I normally like to get but felt it necessary to write somehow...
  HAPPINESS kicks around the idea of pursuing something we're already in possession of...
  HOW ON EARTH is one of the most romantic songs I've ever written (probably not for the cynical)...
  And lastly, I KNOW IT WELL is a direct lyric about reassurance...
  Well, that's about it for now, I hope my first attempt at writing album notes have been helpful and that you like what you hear. Whenever I send out a new album, I'm always hoping it'll bring me back some good luck or good news, which is partly why I've decided to call this one Retriever so there ya go. All the best in 2004, Ron Sexsmith

  2002 - Cobblestone Runway

  Ron Sexsmith is a major contemporary writer/artist who has amassed a sizable and consistently enthralling body of work since making his major label debut in 1995 with his self-titled album on Interscope, followed by such eloquent musical gems as Other Songs (1997), Blue Boy (2001), Retriever (2004) and Time Being (2006). Each has its own particular character but is connected to the rest by the overarching intelligence, impeccable taste and understated emotionality of this single-minded voice in the pop-cultural wilderness. As one new fan put it in a comment on iTunes, Sexsmith's music "wins you over with a silk punch." Well put.

  On his ninth album, the cagily titled Exit Strategy of the Soul (with an emphasis on the last word of this provocative phrase), Sexsmith once again brings a provocative new wrinkle to his expansive aesthetic. Informed but not entrapped by soul and gospel music, ornamented by a Cuban horn section and his own gorgeously imperfect piano playing, the album achieves a sort of metaphysical dimension while maintaining breathtaking intimacy.

  Working once again with Swedish-born, London-based producer Martin Terefe, who brought a burnished, Beatlesque lilt to Retriever, the artist finds an unexpected sweet spot in a stylistic and thematic realm he calls "shadow gospel." It's in full flower on such memorable songs as the horn-drenched "This Is How I Know," the aching "Hard Times," the playful "Brandy Alexander" (his first recorded co-write with fellow Canadian Leslie Feist) and the buoyantly humanistic "Brighter Still." Exit Strategy is framed by a pair of evocative instrumentals redolent of Randy Newman's film music, "Spiritude" and "Dawn Anna." It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that these 14 songs not only encompass the gamut of human emotions but do so with psychological acuity and plainspoken poetic grace.

  The album finds Sexsmith at his most soulful — not that he sounds like Al Green. "I don't have that kind of voice," he acknowledges, unnecessarily. "'This Is How I Know' was the first song I wrote for the record," says Sexsmith, "and it felt to me kind of like a gospel tune. As I continued writing, I started getting this vibe that there was a spiritual element to them. One song, 'Poor Helpless Dreams,' predates my first record; I tried recording it over the years and never got a version I was happy with, but lyrically it seemed to fit in with these new ones. 'Brighter Still' was lyrically very positive, and I felt the record needed that kind of song, which is sort of in a Bill Withers mode." He pauses for an aside. "I keep hoping he'll make another record someday."

  None of it was premeditated. "When Martin and I go in the studio, we don't want to repeat ourselves," says Sexsmith. "Retriever was a straight-ahead, '60-style pop album, and in a way this one is even more old-fashioned and rough. But the plan this time was to not have a plan. At the heart of it is some very questionable piano playing by me. The last bunch of records have been mostly written on piano, but when I'm working with Mitchell [From, the keyboard-playing veteran who produced Sexsmith's three Interscope album's and the previous Time Being], I don't really have the nerve to play in front of him. With Martin, I'd played one song on each record on piano, but with this one, I was determined to track the whole thing on piano, because that's how I'd been doing it at home, and at the core of the record, I thought it might be kind of cool to have an element that was kind of unpolished, and have the other musicians play around that. So that became the springboard for the sound of the record, with me banging away on the keys."

  The spirit of spontaneity extended to the lead vocals, although this aspect, too, was unplanned. "Before the band came in," Sexsmith explains, " I would record each song with guitar and voice, and then we'd get everyone in the room and we'd all play along to that — that's when I'd be banging away on piano. I never thought we'd wind up using the guide vocals, but when I went to New York to re-sing the whole record, even though I was singing everything technically better, the guide vocals had more personality. I still worried about it, but I love hearing Dylan records like that, where you can tell he's not getting too fussy about his singing, and I didn't want to get too precious about it."

  The album was near completion at Terefe's Kensaltown Studios in London when, out of the blue, the producer suggested a trip to Cuba to add a horn section. Though the players had been used by Terefe on a project with the Alex Cuba Band — Sexsmith even sang a duet with the bandleader on one track — the artist was initially nonplussed by the idea. But he'd had spent enough time in the studio with Terefe during the course of their three albums together to trust the producer's instincts, and so, with some trepidation, he went along with the idea. He wrote a song on the flight to Havana — which became the climactic "Brighter Still," cut on the spot with a roomful of Cuban musicians.

  "There's certainly nothing Cuban about my music," says Sexsmith with a laugh. "When I heard the horn players running through the first song, I was thinking it was over the top. But when I heard the tracks back in New York, I was really excited; it was a whole other flavor, one that I've never had on a record before. So it didn't make sense to me at first, but now it really makes sense to me when I hear it." Once again, Terefe's instincts were spot-on — because in going to Cuba, they'd somehow located Memphis circa 1968...and just maybe a half acre of heaven as well.

  Here as always, Sexsmith's priority is the song itself. "I want the lyric and the melody to be as flawless as possible," he says, "so I'm always pretty critical of my own stuff. In general, I try to write songs that will stand up by themselves if I'm not there. My heroes are people who could write all different kinds of songs. Lennon could write something really powerful, and be really funny in the next song; Dylan the same way. I feel all sorts of things, and I want the songs to have different character traits."

  As he was writing the songs that would comprise Exit Strategy, Sexsmith realized that what he was feeling was somewhat headier than the psychological terrain he'd previously inhabited. "It was exciting in a way," he recalls, "because I was getting these lyrical ideas that were a bit different for me; they were reaching for something. I wouldn't call it poetry or anything, but I was trying for something that was a little more poetic. And I think that was partly inspired by what's going on in the world. There's something about writing on the piano, too — it has more of a gospel-y attitude, and it puts me in a different place."

  As for his place in the musical universe, Sexsmith says, "Over the years, I've built it up to the point where I have a cult following, for lack of a better term. I don't have a huge following, but for the most part they're very into it. So that's encouraging, and that's really all you can ask for these days. When I got signed, I was already 30, so I never really expected to be filling arenas. I felt that what I was doing didn't really fit in with what I was hearing on the radio. That's why it always confuses me when I hear people saying, 'Why isn't Ron more famous?' It's not that I think a breakthrough album is out of the question, but it's such a mysterious thing. I mean, I just write the songs, and feel really lucky that I have a career.

  "Recently I was in this bookstore," he continues, "and I saw this giant encyclopedia of modern music. So I thought, 'Hmm... I wonder...' I open it up and, sure enough, there I am, right beside the Sex Pistols. So I suppose I have made a mark in my own way. What I can honestly say is that I'm proud of every single song that's ever been on one of my records. I'm not always proud of the production or the singing, but there's not a song that I couldn't play you now and not feel good about it."

Deer Life: A Fairy Tale
Publishers Weekly. 264.36 (Sept. 4, 2017): p70.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Deer Life: A Fairy Tale

Ron Sexsmith. Dundurn (IPS, U.S. dist.; UTP, Canadian dist.), $16.99 trade paper (129p)

ISBN 978-1-4597-3877-5

Singer-songwriter Sexsmith's first foray into fiction is a timid but charming fairy tale about what happens to the people of two small towns when the beautiful witch Eleanoir arrives. It begins when Crad Grimsby, who runs the Willow Tree tavern and inn and who lost his beloved sister to a witch's spell when both were children, meets Eleanoir, a young woman with purple eyes just like those of the witch. Maggie Hedlight's son, Deryn, goes hunting in the woods and never returns; he now wanders the forest as a deer--the handiwork of Eleanoir, who shares more than just her purple eyes with her sorceress mother. Magnus Hinterlund has fallen madly in love with Eleanoir and is unaware of his fiancee 's evil machinations, though his daughter, Claira, sees all. The coming together of these characters in a fight against evil makes for a good story, but there are other rewards as well. A small blossoming occurs in each character, bonds are formed, and simple human fellowship turns out to be a happily-ever-after. Despite some superfluous parentheses and occasional unsure asides, Sexsmith's novel has much the same effect as his music, conveying uncertainty with fearlessness and heart. (Oct.)

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Deer Life: A Fairy Tale." Publishers Weekly, 4 Sept. 2017, p. 70. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A505468076/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=870230ed. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A505468076

• Lost in the Train
  https://www.lostintherain.com/2017/06/review-deer-life-by-ron-sexsmith/
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  08
  JUN
  2017
  [Review] Deer Life by Ron Sexsmith
  categories: Book Reviews
  My review of Deer Life will follow the publisher’s blurb.

  A humorously dark fairy tale, wherein young Deryn Hedlight (mistakenly) kills a dog that belongs to a witch, setting into motion a series of unexpected events.
  Deryn Hedlight was not having a very good day and it was about to get much worse.

  He’d read stories of witches as a boy, but never believed for a second they were true. That is, until an unfortunate hunting accident turns his world upside down. An honest mistake, it would seem, leads to an altogether unexpected transformation. But poor Deryn isn’t the only wronged character tied up in these gloomy circumstances and sinister forces.

  Deer Life tells the story of a kind-hearted boy from Hinthoven and his mother’s undying love. It’s a wicked fairy tale of witchcraft, bullying, revenge, and a mysterious bowler hat. Mostly though, it’s all about patience, friendship, and heroism where you least expect it.

  First things first; before reading Deer Life I didn’t have a clue who Ron Sexsmith was. Yes, I am Canadian. Now that the awkward bits are over, on to my review.

  The cover art is absolutely stunning. I couldn’t help but think, not having read the blurb… there must be more to this title than meets the eye.

  Deer Life is full of whimsy and delight. It is the perfect book to get lost in when you want to hide away from the world. Also, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a grown up reading a fairy tale ! Come to think of it, that should be printed on a T-Shirt.

  Chapter after chapter, I didn’t want to stop reading. There is something uniquely special about reading Deer Life. Perhaps it is because I don’t let my inner child out very often, and this was a much needed indulgence. Reminiscent of the fairy tales of old, the writing is not childish but nuanced and imaginative. It’s poetic and lyrical.

  And just as Sexsmith states in the beginning of the novel – his inspiration being Charles Dickens – you wonder how this curious cast of characters will come together in the end.

  I loved meeting Tourtière, Big Eyes and the bowler hat. Adding to the enchantement, scattered here and there are Ron Sexsmith’s drawings. I wasn’t too sure about them, but they grew on me.

  I found much pleasure in sneaking away from my humdrum to read Deer Life. With only 136 pages, they flew by fast, too fast. If you were spying on me while I was reading it, you’d most definitely notice the smile tattooed on my face. It’s a book to read for the simple delight of reading.

  So, be aware that reading Deer Life will put a little nugget of sunlight into your heart. Save a space for it on your shelf when it comes out in September ! Don’t worry, I’ll give you a gentle reminder when this wonderful tale is available.

  Deer Life by Ron Sexsmith
  Published by Dundurn Press
  Available September 2017
  136 p
  ISBN 978-1-45973-877-5

  *an e-galley of Deer Life was provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

• Lost in a Great Book
  http://lostinagreatbook.com/five-reasons-you-should-be-reading-deer-life-by-ron-sexsmith/
  Word count: 925

  Five Reasons You Should be Reading Deer Life by Ron Sexsmith
  7 months agoby jenn92 Views5 min read

  Welcome to the final stop on the Dundurn Press blog tour for Ron Sexsmith’s new book, Deer Life! When I was asked if I might be interested in taking part in this tour I knew I had only one response: How could I not want to be part of this delightful gem of a book? This is a deceptively short read that is full of mischief, magic, heroes, villains and the kind of lyricism you would expect to find from Sexsmith’s writing. In fact, when I mentioned that to the fine people at Dundurn, they suggested that I make a list.

  I’m pleased to present my top five reasons (in no particular order) why you should be reading Deer Life this fall.

  ~ It contains all the best elements of a captivating fairy tale. Siblings and witches, mysterious happenings, boys being turned into deer, good versus evil, a hat of (inadvertent) death – all the whimsical aspects of fables and fairy tales that you would expect to find in classics such as Hans Christian Anderson are present in this tale. Much like Anderson (an admitted influence), there is a darker edge to this tale at times, although the author is careful to ensure that there is, after all, a happily ever after in the end.

  ~ The quirky characters are delightful. Much like the characters in a Roald Dahl novel (another noted influence), the characters in Deer Life have fun and unusual names that give broad winks towards their character (why bonjour, Jacques Tourtière, the vegetarian hunter). I enjoyed the distinguishing traits, such as Eleanor and her eyes with the purplish tint that identifies her as something “other”. Even as a deer, Deryn retains the innate innocence and positive outlook he had as a young man, staying true to his loyal and loving mother while building new relationships with Big Eyes and Claira. Additionally, random strangers are slowly drawn together, and find that they are connected in mysterious ways. By the end of the story, these characters are familiar and you find yourself cheering for their happy endings (or their untimely demise).

  ~ There is a lyricism to the story that echoes the author’s songwriting. Fans of Ron Sexsmith the singer/songwriter will not be disappointed in this story. The characters demonstrate a mix of vulnerability and bravery in turn, with a determination to see through the dark times towards the light of the future, with beautiful imagery throughout. I’ll admit to attempting to pair some of Ron’s music to the book as I was reading it, and, in fact, the author has stated that he’s working on songs for a musical version!

  ~ The story is a lovely family read. With characters of good heart and a deliciously evil villain or two to boo, this fairy tale is one that a family could read together without a problem. Sly asides add humour when necessary (“Poison apple?” she thought… “No, that’s been done.” muses the witch at one point), and while the story goes as dark as some of Grimm’s and Anderson’s tales, there is a sense of light that brings you back from the edge. While not every couple may tie the knot at the end (no spoiler here – it’s a fairy tale after all), it’s simply due to a practical note about their age – something I rather appreciated as a welcomed change from 16-year-old Disney brides! I suspect that younger middle grade readers would find this a great family read-aloud.

  ~ While there is a happily ever after, the door is left open for more. The witch might get her comeuppance, and there are happily ever afters to be had, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still stories that could be told for the Hinterlands and Hedlights. Mysterious ravens, returning sisters and a certain hunter are all loose threads that could be tugged upon to unravel new tales and quests in the future, and we can only wonder and hope that they will be told in some form.

  For such a quick read, there are many reasons to pick up this first-time novel. This is one that can be easily shared, and I look forward to future stories from Sexsmith.

  A wicked fairy tale of witchcraft, bullying, revenge, and a mysterious bowler hat. Includes Ron’s own whimsical illustrations.

  Deryn Hedlight was not having a very good day and it was about to get much worse. He’d read stories of witches as a boy, but never believed for a second they were true. That is, until an unfortunate hunting accident turns his world upside down. What seemed like an honest mistake leads to an altogether unexpected transformation. But poor Deryn wasn’t the only wronged character tied up in these gloomy circumstances and sinister forces.

  Deer Life tells the story of a kind-hearted boy from Einthoven and his mother’s undying love. Mostly though, it’s all about patience, friendship, and heroism where you least expect it.

  Deer Life is available from Dundurn Press as of October 10th. An advanced reader’s copy was provided by the publisher for this blog tour. You may purchase your own copy from your favourite independent, online or storefront bookseller. ISBN: 9781459738775, 136 pages.

• festival Peak
  https://festivalpeak.com/a-review-of-ron-sexsmiths-deer-life-2950a9e61f1d
  Word count: 1074

  A Review of Ron Sexsmith’s “Deer Life”
  Be(ing) a Dear Deer

  “Deer Life” Book Cover
  Ron Sexsmith is a fairly well-known Canadian singer-songwriter, and I’ve had some dealings with him on Twitter — where he regularly posts Tweets comprised of nothing but groan-inducing puns. He appears to be a stand-up guy, so I hope he isn’t offended or slighted if I were to tell him that his debut short novel, Deer Life, is middling at best. It’s somewhat pun-filled to be sure, and it displays a fair bit of cleverness and creativity. However, it has deficiencies that are the mark of a first-time writer.

  To be fair, Sexsmith wears his influences on his sleeve and cites as inspiration for the book the likes of Charles Dickens and Roald Dahl. This means you get the sparse writing style of Dickens superimposed on the wonder of Dahl’s work in Deer Life, which the author describes as being an adult fairy tale. The story concerns one Deryn Hedlight (groan), a teenager who had recently suffered through the death of his father. One day, Deryn goes out to try and prove his manhood by hunting for a deer, only to shoot the dog of a witch by accident. The witch turns young Hedlight into a deer as revenge. And the story really only begins from there.

  That story came to Sexsmith as a dream, and Deer Life certainly has a dream-like quality to it (including having dream-like logic). Its setting is a pre-technological fantasy world where characters have those unusual surnames (one is named Tourtière, which is French Canadian for meat pie). There’s a kind of very flat humour to the book, and the tone of it all would make it a wonderful read for young teenagers. I didn’t find very much, if anything, to be “adult” about this novel in the least — certainly not the humour. (Not that that’s a bad thing!)

  Sexsmith lets his imagination run wild in telling the tale. However, the story is very loosely plotted and the really aggravating thing about Deer Life is that there’s a character who twigs on to Deryn’s transformation into a deer fairly early on, and has ample opportunity to explain to others (including Deryn’s mother) what might have happened, and never does so. Honestly, if the character had, the novel would probably be half its length — which, clocking in at a skimpy 128 pages, wouldn’t have been very long at all. It’s a frustrating plot device, because we’re never given any motive as to why the character behaves in his certain way. (Does his motivation stem from his fear of witches? It’s unclear, but, if so, why does that still hinder him from telling anybody?) In the end, this feels like an attempt to pad out the book to a relatively salable length.

  So, yes, if you come to Deer Life looking for much in the way of character development, you’re going to be sore at Sexsmith for not indulging in it. In fact, the novel plays out as though Sexsmith is making the story up on the spot (which, according to the introduction, he sort of did, as his original publisher gave him a few months to complete the manuscript — most of which was written on the road while touring). This has a good and a bad aspect to it. It’s charming for one thing. It’s as though this is the type of story he would have loved to have told his children (who are now adults). However, the writing does unfortunately come off as being a little amateurish — particularly as Sexsmith has a tendency to break the fourth wall from time to time. It’s as though the author is winking at us and hoping that we’re in on the joke.

  I suppose that Deer Life is a nice little dalliance from Sexsmith’s song writing. It also shows another side or two to the musician — besides being a published author now, the book boasts pencil sketches that Sexsmith drew as illustrations. I can’t comment too much on this aspect of the book. I have an electronic galley of this title, and the sketches are light in colour on a Kindle’s screen and were sometimes broken up over multiple pages. (Galleys and advance reading copies aren’t “publish ready.”) Still, if you want to enjoy Sexsmith’s art, I would recommend to pick up a physical copy of the book. Based on what I could see, though, Sexsmith’s sketches are nothing to write home about. I’m not an artist myself, and Sexsmith does a better job than I can do, but the illustrations did, to me, seem a bit of a hokey touch. I think the novel would have been better served by having a professional illustrator do the job.

  There’s not too much more to say about Deer Life. The book can be easily read in just one sitting. It may make for appropriate bedtime reading (it’ll probably inspire some very loopy dreams). And, yes, the book ends on a satisfyingly upbeat note — once you clear the entire plot out of the way. I’d say that, in my humble opinion, Deer Life is best suited to fans of Sexsmith’s musical output and have to have absolutely everything that this man has ever created. Seeing as though that the publisher who commissioned the work eventually took a pass on this, one would have wished that the musician took a bit more time in polishing the manuscript. The story could have used some more character-driven writing as the people who populate this story do feel one-dimensional at best.

  That all said, Deer Life might bring a smile to your face. It’s incredibly good natured. It’s not perfect, but if you’re looking for an easy read with a hint of magic to it, and with a few romantic angles thrown in for good measure, the book may just what you’re looking for. And, if not, we all have Sexsmith’s next album of music to look forward to.

  Ron Sexsmith’s Deer Life: A Fairy Tale will be published by Dundurn Press on October 10, 2017.