159: Ron Sexsmith

Ron Sexsmith likes to take walks. “I was a courier for a number of years and I wrote most of the songs on my first couple albums on the job,” he says “Whenever you’re doing something that’s kind of mindless, then your mind is free to roam. For me it’s a good way to zero in on what I’m trying to say.” 

Very few songwriters develop the kind of skill and status that Ron Sexsmith has. He’s a songwriter’s songwriter. He writes the songs that the rest of us wish we were writing. He does it consistently, carefully, quietly. If you know who he is, then you know what a deceptively brilliant songwriter he is, and you recognize his singing (at times sweet, other times plaintive or plainspoken).

As Ron tells it, he’s a “cred-artist” - someone the labels keep around to make themselves look good, to keep the authenticity quotient high. He has released nearly 20 solo albums in 35 years, and his songs have been covered by a number of well-known musicians, including Elvis Costello, Feist, Rod Stewart, Emmylou Harris, and Michael Bublé.

Ron’s new album, Hermitage, was released last week. In a departure from his well worn habit of working in great studios with great studio bands, he made this one mainly in his house, and played most of the instruments himself. It’s an intimate record, and one that he thinks of as cheerier than usual. This is a collection of songs that Ron was inspired to write when he left Toronto - the city where he lived for years - and moved to a smaller town in Ontario. It’s a personal album about living a quiet, more insular life, but it also feels very connected to this moment. 

Here he talks about his process, his career, and how he finally came to own a house.

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