Ron Sexsmith

The Last Rider COOKING VINYL. CD/DL/LP

Cover shot sees Sexsmith and his band pastiche The Last Supper.

“They’ve picked all the berries that grew on Blueberry Hill,” sings Sexsmith on Radio. It’s a neat metaphor for any songwriter’s fear of a lame harvest, but studio album number 14 finds Ron bringing in the sheaves. Mere syllables into the civil request for stoicism that is It Won’t Last For Long, we’ve already fallen back in love with Sexsmith’s consolatory, subtly-malleable voice. And if the spell is just occasionally broken over the course of 15 new songs recorded with his able, similarly unfussy touring band, there’s no doubting the magic of Man At The Gate (1913), which draws inspiration from a second-hand postcard find and ghosts out on the Canadian equivalent of colliery brass. There’s an appealing stealth and positivity to Ron’s writing here, the Harry Nilsson-like Dreams Are Bigger and evocative childhood snapshot Breakfast Ethereal emerging as bullseyes over repeat plays.