Ron Sexsmith - Forever Endeavor - Printable Version +- Music Discussion (https://www.music-discussion.com) +-- Forum: Music Discussion (https://www.music-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4) +--- Forum: Alternative (https://www.music-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=11) +--- Thread: Ron Sexsmith - Forever Endeavor (/showthread.php?tid=8166)

Ron Sexsmith - Forever Endeavor - Music Head - 14-02-2013 online listen too laid back for me suffers from that sameness thing nothing reaches a like Canada must like him as he's been around awhile 1.3 from me and a converted 2.4 from the pros at allmusic from the album - Snake Road http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atr3cMw-R9c released Feb 5th, 2013 Bio - from allmusic The earnest work of boyish Canadian singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith won acclaim not from only critics but from fellow performers like Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, and John Hiatt -- some of the same artists, ironically enough, who initially inspired Sexsmith himself to become a musician. Born in 1964 and raised in the Niagara Falls area, he started his first band at the age of 14, and within a few years earned his first regular gig at an area club. Influenced by Pete Seeger, he began making the rounds on the folk circuit, but soon decided to focus his attentions on becoming a songwriter. After moving to the Toronto area, Sexsmith formed the Uncool and began issuing his own material in 1985 with the cassette Out of the Duff, followed a year later by There's a Way. He continued performing while maintaining a day job as a courier but did not release anything more until 1991's Grand Opera Lane, recorded by Blue Rodeo's Bob Wiseman. The collection of songs helped earn Sexsmith a songwriting contract and eventually a recording deal with Interscope Records; teamed with producer Mitchell Froom, he released his self-titled debut in 1995. A follow-up, Other Songs, appeared two years later. In 1999, Sexsmith returned with Whereabouts, again produced by Froom. Three years later, Sexsmith inked a deal with Nettwerk and released Cobblestone Runway in October 2002. His seventh album, Retriever, followed two years later. In 2005, Sexsmith shifted creative gears with Destination Unknown, a primarily acoustic album recorded in collaboration with longtime bandmate Don Kerr. Time Being arrived in 2006. Two years later, Sexsmith released his ninth studio album, Exit Strategy of the Soul, which was produced by Martin Terefe. His tenth album, Long Player Late Bloomer, produced by Bob Rock and recorded at Sage and Sound Recording (Hollywood), The Orange Lounge (Toronto), and The Warehouse Studio (Vancouver), appeared early in 2011. Sexsmith returned to producer Mitchell Froom for his next release, Forever Endeavour, which arrived early in 2013. Album Review - from allmusic Ron Sexsmith was just born too late (1964) to have the kind of commercial success his approach and songwriting truly deserves -- he would have cleaned up as a singer and songwriter in the 1970s, but as popular music headed down a groove-oriented path that put little or no premium on intelligent lyrics or sweeping, aching melodies as time and the pop charts stomped, rocked, and rapped into the 21st century, Sexsmith has to be content with being a critics' darling. He is, after all, a very fine songwriter, with a folky base that gives his best compositions the feel of timelessness, and he is also a very confessional songwriter, not hiding behind emotional tricks or gimmicks. Throw in a very heavy streak of melancholy, and it all adds up to never hearing a Sexsmith song on the radio. This set, with the punning title of Forever Endeavour, finds Sexsmith even more melancholy than usual, thanks to a throat cancer scare in 2011 (the lump doctors found in his throat turned out to be benign), a situation that turned him toward thinking thoughts of mortality. Working again with producer Mitchell Froom, who produced his first three albums, and then another in 2006, Sexsmith delivers a new batch of songs that have no chance whatsoever of making a singles chart. That's the fault of the times, though, and not Sexsmith, who simply does what he's done since his under-the-radar career began in 1985. Froom helps out with unassuming but appropriately muted orchestration, applying brass, woodwinds, and strings on several songs, but the overall tone of the album is autumnal, sparse, and acoustic. Highlights include the folky "Sneak Out the Back Door," the jaunty, joyous-sounding, and lovely "Blind Eye" (which sounds just a little bit like vintage Donovan without the hippy-dippy lyrics), and the oddly hopeful (for Sexsmith, anyway) "Life After a Broken Heart," although the whole album feels like a uniform meditation on aging, mortality, and the affirming wish to go forward in spite of what's been. Track Listing 1. Nowhere To Go 2. Nowhere Is 3. If Only Avenue 4. Snake Road 5. Blind Eye 6. Lost In Thoughts 7. Sneak Out The Back Door 8. Back Of My Hand 9. Deepens With Time 10. Me Myself And Wine 11. She Does My Heart Good 12. The Morning Light Ron Sexsmith - Forever Endeavor - SteveO - 15-02-2013 I never did get Ron! I must be the only Canadian who didn't!...lol