COOKING VINYL
Ron Sexsmiths’s 16th album was recorded in the front room of his new home in the Ontario countryside. Prior to this, the former Toronto resident had been slaving away at the singer-songwriter coal face for 30 years, embedding his songs in the catalogues of artists ranging from Tracey Thorn to Michael Bublé, without nabbing a hit of his own. So has a new bucolic existence affected, as the biog has it, “Canada’s foremost song and dance man”? Opening track Spring Of The Following Year starts with bird song and sees a new-found lyrical optimism; it’s gentle, slight and maybe even a little too content. Fortunately, Sexsmith’s dextrous way with a barbed word and an unexpected melodic twist soon re-emerges and by the time we reach Small Minded World, Dig Nation and You Don’t Wanna Hear It, the old Ron is back.