Blue Boy [CD]

Ron Sexsmith - Blue Boy [CD]

It's slightly alarming that Ron Sexsmith opens Blue Boy, his fourth album, with a song about writing a song, which is usually a sure sign of a songwriter about to disappear into his own navel. The next stage is an entire album of songs about the seedy tedium of life on the road. Fortunately, the estimable Steve Earle is in the production chair, so Sexsmith quickly gets back to reality with cuts like the slice-of-life "Cheap Hotel", the jangly mid-paced "Don't Ask Why" and the finger-picking delight "Tell Me Again" with its faintly Cajun feel. The smoky jazz-tinged "Foolproof" is one of this Canadian tune-wrangler's finest achievements to date, displaying his talent for extended melodic lines and revealing an unlikely vocal timbre that recalls Hoagy Carmichael. With its admirably live ambience, Blue Boy goes some way towards restoring the qualities that made Sexsmith's 1995 debut album so promising, and also lets him kick out a little on a few tracks which display slightly rockier, funkier and more soulful aspects of his talent. What Sexsmith has yet to find though, is a producer who will keep him doing takes until he sings in tune all of the time, not just 90 per cent of it. --Johnny Black