Truck Mix Disc: Ron

For the most part, my wife "puts up with" the music that I listen to. So when I was listening to a Ron Sexsmith album the other week, I was pleasantly surprised when she asked "Who is this?" and started to sing along. Lately she's been requesting "Ron" whenever I ask "What should we listen to?"

Ron is the consummate singer/songwriter, in that his strengths are his songwriting and the style of his singing. From my limited knowledge of music, he's like a mix between the Beatles and Elvis Costello. I've read where people have described his style as "hard-earned optimism" and I think that fits well.

Ron and I go way back. He performed on that House of Blues TV show in 1995 and I bought his first CD soon after. Over the next five years or so I bought his next two CDs, but didn't like them as much as his debut, so I hadn't bought any more of his albums since.

Then, out of the blue, I see a story about Ron on the front page of cnn.com about a month ago. It was about how he's still making albums and how, though he is well-respected among his peers, Ron hasn't broken through as a mainstream artist. So I picked up where I left off and bought a couple of his albums from the early 00's. (Whenever I get interested in a musician, it seems like I generally acquire the albums in chronological order.) So now I have 5 of his 10 albums.

One of those albums that I bought recently is Cobblestone Runway. It was while listening to this album that my wife decided she liked Ron. She even asked me to make a mix CD of his songs to listen to in the car. I'm happy to oblige, since making mix CDs for the road has been a little hobby of mine ever since I bought my truck. So here's the tracklist I came up with:

1. Former Glory
2. Cheap Hotel
3. Clown in Broad Daylight
4. Disappearing Act
5. Dragonfly on Bay Street
6. First Chance I Get
7. Foolproof
8. From a Few Streets Over
9. Galbraith Street
10. Gold in Them Hills
11. Heart With No Companion
12. Honest Mistake
13. Idiot Boy
14. Lebanon, Tennessee
15. Nothing Good
16. One Grey Morning
17. Seem To Recall
18. Still Time
19. Tell Me Again
20. These Days
21. Thinking Out Loud
22. Strawberry Blonde
23. Summer Blowin' Town
24. Words We Never Use
25. Best Friends