opportunity to see Ron Sexsmith last night at the Cabaret, a nice cozy room just down the street from me. It was great to see him live – I missed what has become a legendary show he played about 4 yrs ago at a now-defunct space called Isart. He seemed a little hemmed in by his band – his solo songs were better, and although the band was OK, they seemed to put a box around him a bit more than I would have liked. Probably just a lack of familiarity – the guitar and bass were pretty new. Incidentally, the bassist (Maury LeFoy) used to play in my friend Ian’s band, Starling.
In case it’s not obvious, I (and many others) consider Ron Sexsmith to be among the very best songwriters and performers of the past several years. You could say he’s like the demon spawn of Brian Wilson, Tom Waits (who he covered last night) and Neil Young (maybe), but that wouldn’t be quite right. I can leave his first CD (or his third, for that matter) in my car for weeks and listen to it over and over – it’s never boring. Just in case it wasn’t clear.
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