Ron Sexsmith

Singer Kev always had another side of himself that wasn't expressed in Jebediah.

He loved classic radio pop, but also singer-songwriters like Ron Sexsmith.

So in 1999, Kevin Mitchell started the Bob Evans alter ego.

It allowed him to tap into a slightly different side of his songwriting, which is more classic pop.

Sonny Yesterday my life was filled with rain.

Here's more of the ukulele strumming students of Doan Music School with Ron Sexsmith and a cover of the Bobby Hebb classic, Sunny, performed on a Toronto streetcar, steering this Canadian musical mission all over the big city.

This has been Your World Tonight.

I'm Stephanie Skenderis.

very critical terms, but she's actually talking about Son of Bush, so it's very familial, isn't it? The album Hymns of the 49th Parallel is a Canadian songbook, really, and I'm a bit sceptical sometimes of cover albums, but this is a beauty.

She chooses some of the best songs by some of the best singer-songwriters, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Jane Seabury, and Ron Sexsmith, and there's a... piano-driven sound, and her usual creamy voice as the centrepiece.

We're going to hear the archive interview now, and we'll start with the voice.

This is Joni Mitchell's song, A Case of You.

And I just, I think as a singer, it's one of the greatest things to have in your arsenal.

There's just great songs that use these images because it helps you go on a journey when you're singing and it just makes it a much easier job.

For anybody who doesn't know, we're talking about songs by Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Jane Seabury, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Coburn, Ron Sexsmith and yourself.

If one were going to do an album of covers, you could easily end up with songs by these writers.

And we also do lunchtime and after school and evening program.

All of our big kids who get into the next, the highest levels, who get to play with, you know, Jan Arden or Ron Sexsmith or whoever, when we do special stuff there, you know, getting into their fourth, fifth and sixth year of performing and playing with us.

And they come to kind of an all city hub And they can come on the subway.

But the kids before that age, we're going into their schools, we're going to them at their school locations, which, yes, do I have to deal with all of that and permitting? I do.

I find that fun.

I find it fun to be showing up and doing good concerts and, uh, creating fun recordings for us to do and, reaching out to my fellow artists.

Um, as we mentioned, Ron Sexsmith and Jan Arden and Paul, um, molly johnson and uh this this year uh our good friend um oh who am i julie black um amazing came and played with us at uke day and i mean these people care about kids and music they care about kids and music they show up because they care so much and um those are those are relationships that will continue to nurture Everyone who's listening,

we have to help Melanie's dream come true.

A detailed look at the album's credits tell a rather different story to the one spun by the label.

Polydor employed a small army of producer-songwriters with somewhat less credible names than Terefs, who has produced Katie Tunstall, Ed Harcourt and Ron Sexsmith on their CVs.

In fact, Undiscovered's co-writers have also written for Atomic Kitten, Five Girls Aloud, Busted, Renekita and Kylie, Victoria Beckham and Westlife.

Oh, and James Blunt, having not actually penned a single song on his own, Morrison clearly wasn't quite so averse to performing material written by other people after all.

[gentle music] Third-story.com is the place to visit the archive.

Hundreds of deep dives, including other notable singers and songwriters, ranging from my most recent episode with Harry Connick Jr. to some classic episodes with folks like Ron Sexsmith, Peter Himmelman, Donald Fagen, Boz Scaggs, Imogen Heap, Martin Sexton, Ani DiFranco, Suzanne Vega.

It's a good crew.

Check it out.

I don't count that as meeting somebody.

Ron Sexsmith.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, cool.

Powerline is an album inspired by a time and a place, colorful snapshots shaped by memory and imagination.

The Toronto-based singer-songwriter brings a fresh perspective to classic pop folk songwriter and has been a collaborator with the likes of Ron Sexsmith, Mo Berg, Kevin Hearn from Barenaked Ladies, Carole Pope, and Lori Cullen.

Her previous album, Songs from the Alien Beacon, received a Juno nomination for Producer of the Year and the former vocalist with The Pursuit of Happiness.

Tour dates are November 5 in Hamilton, November 6 in Toronto, November 8 in Picton, November 12 in Chelsea, Quebec, November 13 on Wolf Island, November 14 Uxbridge, and November 15 Port Sydney.

And the world changed for me in that moment.

And I did play that, but the other one I played, Kevin, and obviously didn't make an impression on you, was this one from Ron Sexsmith.

Yes.

Yeah, I see tomorrow in her eyes.

Did you ever visit the Orange Monkey?

got friendly with a number of Canadian musicians too like Sadie's and Mike Balitsky and obviously not Canadian but Joe Pernice who lives in Toronto is a good friend got to know Ron Sexsmith fairly well runs a really nice guy too and so yeah that was I had a very interesting 10 years I really enjoyed it

It sounds like you don't miss the harsh weather, but you do miss the people of Canada that you got to meet.

That would be