No Sexsmith hex

Elvis, Bob Dole and justice for singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith

by CHRIS YURKIW

Ron Sexsmith has two people to thank for saving his debut album and, quite possibly, his career: Elvis Costello and Bob Dole. After the release of Ron Sexsmith in 1995, it was Costello who led the critical championing of the simple beauty of Sexsmith's songs--Elvis having been slid an advance copy of the album from producer Mitchell Froom.

And it was also back in '95 that Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole was spearheading a simplistic attack on gangsta rap. He singled out Death Row Records (home of Snoop Doggy Dogg) and its distributor Interscope Records (home of Sexsmith) and, in turn, Interscope's parent company, the Warner Music Group (owned by Time Warner). Time Warner buckled under the political pressure and divested itself of Interscope, which quickly struck a new distribution deal with Warner competitor Universal Music ("Thanks, Bob!"). This is exactly the kind of corporate shuffle that could cause a great album by an understated guy from St. Catharines, Ontario to get lost amid lawyers' cell-phone bills. But the exact opposite happened to Ron Sexsmith.

"It wasn't until Universal started distributing the album that it started to get a second life," says Sexsmith. That was one year after its release, when all the album had going for it was critical acclaim. Universal Canada took the raves from Costello, John Hiatt, Steve Earle and others and ran with them. Meanwhile, Interscope in Los Angeles reassigned Sexsmith to new people in the company "who understood more what I was trying to do," unlike, ironically, the A&R man who got Sexsmith his Interscope deal and hooked him up with producer Froom--but who didn't like the spare airiness they came up with on Ron Sexsmith. All of which adds up to a real big buzz now that Sexsmith has just released his second album, simply titled Other Songs.

"I guess I get a bit put off when I see these flowery titles, like Painted Desert Serenade or something like that," says Sexsmith. "I was thinking a lot about those Leonard Cohen records, like Songs From a Room, or Songs of Love and Hate, and I like those titles because it keeps the focus on the songs. It just seemed to be a good, humble way to do it."

Good, humble, sweet, melancholic--that's Ron Sexsmith in 14 nutshells of new songs. Froom helms the record once again, but Other Songs is a little more rockin' and a little closer to some of Ron's heroes like Harry Nilsson or Brian Wilson. But it's far from those days when, as Sexsmith says, "I felt like it was all over before it had even begun."

Ron Sexsmith plays Another Roadside Attraction (with The Tragically Hip, Sheryl Crow, Los Lobos and others) in Highgate, Vermont this Saturday, July 26. Gates open 12:30pm. 790-1245