Though his own career arguably still has the air of a well-kept secret, at least in terms of the mass market, Sexsmith has managed to sneak his way into more than six million record collections. He wrote, and contributes a duet vocal to Whatever It Takes, on fellow Canuck Michael Bublé’s Crazy Love, the UK’s second-biggest selling album of last year.
Clearly, for all the ersatz Sinatra-isms detractors use as sticks with which to beat him, Bublé knows a cracking tune when he hears one – and Sexsmith’s 11th album is choc full of them, travelling a sharp-minded melodic path already well trodden by such reliable troubadours as Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello, both of whom Ron has opened for in recent times.
Sexsmith’s voice is an extraordinary beast, rising from laconic mumble to a testifying swoon in the space of a few bars, perfectly suited to studies of love and/or loneliness such as Believe It When I See It and the deliciously catchy The Reason Why. It may not be easy charting a distinctive trajectory to Sexsmith’s work, as he’s essentially doing the same as on his first recordings almost 20 years ago but, when you’ve got such an assured handle on sturdy memorable tunes and insightful emotional articulacy, why would you bother changing your ways?
