A bittersweet thread runs through some of Ron Sexsmith's songs.
WANT TO GO?
"Mountain Stage"
With Ron Sexsmith, Mark Olson, The Civil Wars, Sonya Kitchell (featuring Broken Strings) and The Steel Wheels
WHEN: 7 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Culture Center Theater
TICKETS: Advance $15, at the door $25
INFO:www.mountainstage.org or 800-594-TIXX
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A bittersweet thread runs through some of
Ron Sexsmith's songs. The Canadian singer/songwriter is gifted at writing thoughtful songs that capture melancholy and disappointment, but he said, "I never wanted to be one of those songwriters who was the master of the one emotion. I didn't want to be the guy who only wrote dark songs, who only wrote gloom."
Sexsmith, who appears Sunday on "Mountain Stage," says he frequently draws from the emotions of his own life. He writes lots of different kinds of songs and thinks of himself as pretty well rounded person. It's just that he has little control over what strikes a chord with other people.
For instance, his 2004 album, "Retriever," was written at the start of a new romance.
"All those songs were pretty happy in general," Sexsmith said. "But I remember someone coming up to me in Germany and telling me he preferred the other stuff because it was darker."
He doesn't want to be limited. His musical heroes weren't.
"John Lennon wrote songs with anger and songs that were funny. He wrote beautiful love songs," Sexsmith said. "That's the kind of songwriter I've tried to be."
He doesn't get it, but he understands there's a lot he doesn't get.
WANT TO GO?
"Mountain Stage"
With Ron Sexsmith, Mark Olson, The Civil Wars, Sonya Kitchell (featuring Broken Strings) and The Steel Wheels
WHEN: 7 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Culture Center Theater
TICKETS: Advance $15, at the door $25
INFO:www.mountainstage.org or 800-594-TIXX
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A bittersweet thread runs through some of
Ron Sexsmith's songs. The Canadian singer/songwriter is gifted at writing thoughtful songs that capture melancholy and disappointment, but he said, "I never wanted to be one of those songwriters who was the master of the one emotion. I didn't want to be the guy who only wrote dark songs, who only wrote gloom."
Sexsmith, who appears Sunday on "Mountain Stage," says he frequently draws from the emotions of his own life. He writes lots of different kinds of songs and thinks of himself as pretty well rounded person. It's just that he has little control over what strikes a chord with other people.
For instance, his 2004 album, "Retriever," was written at the start of a new romance.
"All those songs were pretty happy in general," Sexsmith said. "But I remember someone coming up to me in Germany and telling me he preferred the other stuff because it was darker."
He doesn't want to be limited. His musical heroes weren't.
"John Lennon wrote songs with anger and songs that were funny. He wrote beautiful love songs," Sexsmith said. "That's the kind of songwriter I've tried to be."
He doesn't get it, but he understands there's a lot he doesn't get.
Sexsmith has always been kind of an outsider in the pop music world, a critical success and adored by all the right people (Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Steve Earl), but commercial success has always eluded him.
"'Retriever' had two songs in the Top 20, and I thought the world was ending," he laughed. "I've always been shut out of radio -- except college radio and NPR."
He just doesn't fit in.
"Mainstream radio is playing club-land kind of music. It's very juvenile."
The trouble breaking into the mainstream hits him hard. Sexsmith says there's been a creeping pessimism that's built up in his records, but he has some hope with the new album, "Long Play Late Bloomer." The album, due out in March is, as usual, turning a few heads among music industry watchers, particularly since Sexsmith's producer for the record was Bob Rock.
Rock is best known for producing hard rock bands like Metallica, Aerosmith and Motley Crue.
"Obviously, I don't make that kind of music," he said. "I did try as a teenager. I had a sort of a rock band. I just wasn't any good at it."
But Sexsmith doesn't think it's all that odd that he got Rock to produce "Long Play Late Boomer." He's worked with all kinds of people and so has Rock.
"Bob produced the last Michael Bublé album. I always thought that would strike people as more odd than working with me."
Sexsmith says they have a lot of common ground and while it might have seemed like a crazy idea at the time, the results are encouraging. A single, "Believe It When I See It," has been added to the A-list on BBC 2 radio in Britain, something Sexsmith says has never happened to him before.
"I just wrote something that I would like to hear on the radio," he said.
Maybe somebody else will too, he hopes.
Reach Bill Lynch at ly...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5195.
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