Canada has produced some of the best musicians in the 20th century.
Joni Mitchell
Neil Young
Oscar Peterson
But I could name more.
Including one man who has been releasing material for the past forty years.
He has won multiple Junos and performed for fans across North America and Europe.
Not to mention his top-notch, his pun-heavy posts on social media.
I’m Craig Baird and this is Canadian History Ehx … Biography! Today, I speak to…Ron Sexsmith.
St. Catharines, Ontario has a strong musical legacy.
Walter Ostanek, the multi-Grammy Award winning Polka King of Canada was born there.
Neil Peart, The Professor and Drummer for Rush, grew up there.
Most of the members of Alexisonfire and Our Lady Peace are from St. Catharines as is Ron Sexsmith who was born on Jan 8, 1964
As a youngster he played his father’s vinyl collection and became fascinated by what he heard.
His father had left when he was just two years old and was only occasionally in his life from then on.
But his records made a huge impact on Ron, who realized his future was in music.
He said in an interview years later,
“It’s all I ever wanted to do since I was 4 or 5.”
His first step was to start a band which he did when he was 14 but like most teenage bands, it didn’t go very far.
But that didn’t stop him.
Just three years later he was performing at The Lion’s Tavern in his hometown.
He was 17 years old and got the gig thanks to his brother Don, who played at the bar, and got him an audition.
For two to three nights, every week, Ron played cover songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan and other famous artists.
Before long, Ron developed a reputation as a versatile performer who could play nearly any song requested.
If he didn’t know one on the night, he would spend the rest of the week learning so he could be ready for next time.t.
“All that standard stuff that people are still playing in the bars today. I was eager to please, so I’d learn every song and every week people would come in with requests.”
He was called The One-Man Jukebox, and soon word spread that a teenager was putting on an excellent show multiple times a week. Like every great artist though, he said in an interview he eventually got tired of singing other people’s songs. “It’s the kind of place where you pretty much have to play mainly cover tunes. I played at all the bars and I kind of wore out my welcome there. I just had to move on. I saw a lot of others who started playing at the same time as I did, it was a kind of dead end.”
He continued to plug away and focused on songwriting not just performing. He would write songs in his head while he worked.
By 1985, his first child was born, and that triggered a need for change.
He said he knew that if he was going to make something happen, he couldn’t stay in St. Catharines.
“I felt that maybe I was songwriter, and it seemed to me very clear that I had to pursue it. And in Canada there’s only a few cities where you can do that. There’s Toronto or there’s Vancouver maybe, but it’s mainly Toronto. So, we did the big move, and it took us two years just to save up all the money to finally get there.”
He eventually moved to the Beaches, a neighbourhood in Toronto with its own musical legacy and history.
Not only does this enclave in Toronto’s east end host world class musicians every year for the Beaches’ Jazz Festival it was also the home to Canadian legends Glenn Gould and Dan Hill.
Ron said this is also when he began to expand his musical taste to include Canadian artists such as Max Webster, April Wine, The Poppy Family and Gordon Lightfoot.
Living in Toronto also afforded him the opportunity to watch some of the best singer-songwriters at Massey Hall.
The performance venue is arguably the most prestigious one in Canada.
Built in 1894 by the prominent Massey family as a concert hall for both the rich and the poor it has hosted some of the most influential acts in music history since it opened including Joni Mitchell, Rush and Bob Marley.
Ron was able to see his musical heroes like Gordon Lightfoot and Bob Dylan perform there. Even when he couldn’t afford a ticket, he would stand at the door to listen to the music.
Never believing he could fill an arena, Ron set his goals on performing at Massey Hall.
Not as an opener, but a headliner.
And he was well on his way.
By themid-80s, Ron was confident in his song writing and recorded a cassette tape with his friend and fellow singer-songwriter Claudio.
Called Out of the Duff was released, and it featured five original songs from Ron.
It was just a small cassette, but Ron started to get noticed.
In 1986 he released a full-length cassette There’s a Way with producer Kurt Swinghammer which was followed by the independent album Grand Opera Lane, and it included the song Speaking with the Angel. Word was getting out about Ron’s talent as one of his tapes found its way down to Los Angeles and to a representative at Geffen Records who flew to Toronto to watch him play.
Ron said he got mixed reviews.
“The verdict was generally that I was a good songwriter, but I wasn’t a very good performer.”
A year later, that Geffen rep was at Interscope Music and immediately signed Ron to a publishing deal.
He would be a writer for the company, rather than a performer, but it was a foot in the door as his music continued to make the rounds and impress.
Producer Mitchell Froom, who had produced the first three albums for Crowded House really liked what he heard. “A lot of the other producers were just – “It’s going to be great you know” – but they were very vague, where Mitchell had these comment about my voice and the way to approach it and so on. It seemed like I could trust him, and I was in good hands.”
Meanwhile, Ron continued to work on his music, often writing songs while working as a courier.
He eventually had about 200 songs, some had been written years earlier, others were newer, but he had to go through them to select the best ones as r he prepared for his first studio album.
Mitchell Froom helped Ron fine-tune the selection as they sat down together to listen to the songs.
Part of the process included input from Froom who suggested ways to change things up.
In 1995, Ron released his self titled first studio album, which he dedicated to singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson who had died a year earlier.
It received good reviews and the song, Secret Heart, was later used in an episode of the X-Files titled Babylon.
Ron said Secret Heart was also covered by Rod Stewart and Nick Lowe.
“It didn’t amount to anything. I mean it’s a good calling card, it had potential, but when I heard his version, I thought this doesn’t sound like a single. It didn’t have drums and stuff on.”
The album, however, received praise from new wave icon Elvis Costello, who made Ron his opening act.
His album had only been released in North America, and no one was playing it, no one was talking about it, and he was about to be dropped by his record label.
But towards the end of the year, Elvis Costello held up his record on the cover of the popular UK music magazine Mojo in December of 1995 and it changed everything for Ron.
He was suddenly in demand in Europe and people he had grown up admiring like Paul McCartney and Elton John, began championing him.
That helped fuel him and by 1997, Ron had released his second major-label album, Other Songs.
It was another critical hit.
The album received the Juno Award for Solo Roots & Traditional Album of the Year.
Two years later Ron released his next album Whereabouts which also garnered critical acclaim when Rolling Stone Magazine stated it had 12 near-perfect songs.
The album also earned a Juno nomination.
By 2001, Ron travelled to Nashville to record Blue Boy over six days and was produced by Steve Earle.
After his label refused to release it because of the stylistically diverse songs, Ron released it himself.
It received acclaim from critics, and The Washington Post called the album,
“Shot through with crafty and engaging pop tunes that incorporate everything from backward loops and string arrangements to jazz coloring and reggae beats.”
Ron also continued to perform with other prominent singer songwriters’ artists.
In 2002, he sang Gold in Them Hills with Chris Martin from Coldplay, which became a bonus track on his album Cobblestone Runway.
He worked in the studio with Ray Davies of The Kinks, in a memory that Ron called surreal.
Elton John gave him a shoutout on stage and invited him backstage to chat.
Ron’s talent was being recognized by legends including The Who’s Pete Townshend and one of the most famous musicians of the 20th Century, Paul McCartney.
“It’s just amazing that they’ve heard of me and they know who I am, really. When I was at Paul McCartney’s house, we played some songs and I was too afraid to play him one of mine, so I played him one of his. I mean, these guys wrote the book, and I’ve just been a really good student.”
He even performed with Leonard Cohen in, of all places, an Indigo Bookstore basement.
Ron had been invited for the event coinciding Mr. Cohen’s release of a book of poetry in 2006.
When he arrived, he was taken to the basement.
As the elevator door opened, he could hear music, so he walked in and hung back against the wall just enjoying being part of the experience.
Then Cohen saw Ron, walked over to him, put his arm around his shoulders and brought him into the singing circle.
Ron said,
I have the superpower of remembering lyrics … so I just started playing all these obscure Leonard songs. And Leonard was right beside me. And so, when it came time to actually go out on the street, we were playing for about 5,000 people or something.
2006 was a big year for Ron Sexsmith, not only did he get to play along with his musical heroes.
He would soon be fulfilling his lifelong dream.
The young man who had listened at the door of a legendary musical venue would be stepping into the spotlight.
In April 2006 he would be playing at Massey Hall “That’s a biggie for me. If I could place like that everywhere, that would be nice.”
Since then, he has been back four more times to delight audience because soon after his career skyrocketed.
In 2007, he cowrote Brandy Alexander with Feist,
The song appeared on her breakthrough album The Reminder and a version of the song also appeared on his 2008 album Exit Strategy of the Soul.
When Michael Bublé released his sixth studio album Crazy Love in 2009, it featured Ron’s song Whatever It Takes.
The duet between Ron and Michael earned Ron a Juno for Songwriter of the Year.
By 2011, Ron Sexsmith released his 12th studio album, Long Player Late Bloomer and earned a Juno nomination for Alternative Album of the Year.
It was also shortlisted for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize.
A documentary, Love Shines, documented the album’s recording process with heavy metal producer Bob Rock.
The album did well in Canada and reached #48 in the United Kingdom.
And the career milestones kept coming.
In 2013, he headlined at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. One of the most famous concert venues in the world, he said it was a special moment for him.
“The only real rock star thing I ever did was I flew my parents to England to the show.”
While the United Kingdom has always welcomed him, he never once thought about leaving home.
Ron said a lot of that comes down to his admiration for Gordon Lightfoot who stayed in Canada, despite having success.
“I love Canada. Canada makes sense to me in a world that seems crazy.”
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, while everyone was quarantined at home, Ron wrote 11 songs that would become his next album The Vivian Lane.
He named the album after a street located far from his home in Stratford, Ontario
And by the time this episode is released his album Hangover Terrace will be out.
Through his travels across the country, c Ron has been able to see what makes Canada different from other countries.
When asked what fills him with pride, Ron cites people like Tommy Douglas and the implementation of universal healthcare.
He also believes that Canadians tend to be very forward thinking and welcoming.
But above all else, it is all about music for Ron Sexsmith
I would like to thank Ron Sexsmith for taking the time to chat with me about his life and career.
In two weeks, I will have another episode of Canadian History Ehx Biography.
I’ll be talking to the man who crawled through a log to take us to a magical and happy world Fred Penner!
