Ron Sexsmith
Whereabouts
On Sale Now
For $13.28

Three singer songwriters at a crossroads in their respective careers put on a good show for a small but appreciative Wednesday night Birchmere crowd.

Canadian Ron Sexsmith, after three acclaimed CDs for UNI/Interscope now finds himself label shopping with a new Steve Earle-produced CD already in the can. Former Dog’s Eye View frontman Peter Stuart has decided to forego the band name for now and try his luck as a solo artist. He has a new record as well but as he put it, "Sony liked it so much they dropped me." David Mead still had a label last time he checked and he’s got a new record set for release next year that was produced by Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger which he hopes will expand on the small following he developed with last year’s Luxury of Time.

But the year 2000 is a tough time to be a male singer songwriter. Sexsmith indicated as much in referring to this jaunt as the "endangered species tour." And Stuart poked fun at the year of the boy bands during his set with a riff on a Burger King Backstreet Boys french fries container promotion of all things.

Mead’s opening set showcased a remarkable vocal range and a breadth of pop smarts that draws from everything from Simon and Garfunkel to Broadway show tunes. On songs like "Sweet Sunshine" and "Landlocked" from the aforementioned Luxury of Time, Mead slides effortlessly in and out of a nice falsetto. Those who came early to the show (about twenty by my count when Mead began his set) were also treated to four new songs from the forthcoming disc.

Peter Stuart since giving up the Dog’s Eye View moniker has been recording a new record with Counting Crow Adam Duritz and others. Stuart even sounds a bit like Duritz without some of the vocal histrionics. He also has a comic sensibility that’s somewhere between Jon Stewart and Adam Sandler. An improvised song that referenced the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears and rhymed Marilyn Manson and Ted Danson was a comic highlight of the evening. He also told a funny story about meeting and co-writing a song with Jon Bon Jovi at a songwriting camp in the south of France. Despite his record company woes, Stuart was selling a four-song sampler EP of new material. His set featured new songs like "With My Heart in Your Hands" and older Dog’s Eye View favorites like the pretty, set-ending "Last Letter Home." Mead also joined him onstage for one song.

Accompanying himself on guitar and occasionally piano, Sexsmith took on songs from all three of his records. He bookended his set with the beautifully nostalgic "Still Time" and "Seem to Recall" from last year’s Whereabouts. Songs like "Clown in Broad Daylight" from 1997’s Other Songs were given new life, shorn of their tricked-out arrangements on record. Sexsmith added some pretty guitar picking on songs like "Speaking With the Angel" from his 1995 eponymous debut. His evocative, wistful voice hit all the high notes on songs like "Average Joe" and "There’s A Rhythm" had all of the haunting quality of the recorded version. Sexsmith threw in a couple of new songs including a waltz-like number and a song called "God Bless This Cheap Hotel" which sounded like it could be a hit in a more pop-friendly universe. He also took on covers of Fleetwood Mac (Christine McVie’s "Over My Head") and Irving Berlin ("What’ll I Do"). He worked a bit of "Here Comes the Sun" into "Feel For You" as well. "You can do anything with a ‘D’ chord," he quipped. Sexsmith also showed why he’s become a favorite for other artists to cover on "Secret Heart," a song of his recorded by Rod Stewart on his last record.

Check out Ron Sexsmith's web site at www.ronsexsmith.com

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