http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...6-ab005a0685d9
Concert salutes our songwriters
4 singers, 4 writers, one orchestra
John Mackie, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, April 14, 2007
THE GREAT CANADIAN SONGBOOK
Featuring the songs of Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy St. Marie and Serge Fiori done by Sarah Slean, Ron Sexsmith, Veda Hille and Marc Dery
Chan Centre, Sunday, 3 p.m.
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Tickets $23 at Ticketmaster
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Believe it or not, the CBC still has a radio orchestra, the only one left in North America. And this Sunday at 3 p.m., they're venturing out from Toronto for a unique bit of Canadiana at the Chan Centre.
The Great Canadian Songbook features songs by four legendary Canadian songwriters -- Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Buffy St. Marie and Serge Fiori -- by four of Canada's most acclaimed contemporary singer/songwriters, Ron Sexsmith, Sarah Slean, Veda Hille and Montreal's Marc Dery.
Each singer will do four songs, and the results will be broadcast on the CBC Radio 2's Canada Live on May 2.
Sexsmith will be doing the Lightfoot songs Beautiful, Now and Then, The Last Time I Saw Her and The Mountains and Maryann.
The 43-year-old Sexsmith is a subtle singer whose records are usually quite quiet, and intimate. Not necessarily the kind of guy you'd expect to play with an orchestra, a gig usually reserved for singers with big voices, like k.d. lang. But he says it's working out great.
"It's challenging, you know?" says Sexsmith, who has been in town rehearsing for a few days.
"It's challenging oftentimes just [to stay in] time, because you don't have someone banging away on a drum kit to keep you on time. And you have to kind of move along with the orchestra, there's a little bit of a push and pull kind of thing.
"At the same time, my favourite singer is Bing Crosby. He sang with orchestras all the time, and he wasn't like a belter, he was just a crooner. I've always considered myself to be a crooner. I feel pretty comfortable."
At the Chan, he'll be crooning songs like Beautiful in fairly faithful renditions.
"I've always been a believer in just let the melody do the work, you know? I like the way Chet Baker always sang those jazz songs. He just sang the melody, he sang it straight. Bing did that as well. For me, when I sing Beautiful . . . there's a reason [Lightfoot] wrote that melody, you know? I don't want to bend it all over the place so it's unrecognizable. I just let the song do the work. That's the safe way to go about it."
He's seen old Gord do Beautiful many times live.
"When I moved to Toronto, I started seeing him every year. I'd go to Massey Hall, [where Lightfoot does annual concerts]. And I've never missed him there since I moved to Toronto. To me it's been like the highlight of my year. For me it's the ultimate Canadian thing to do, to hear Lightfoot singing in Massey Hall.
"When I played Massey Hall, he showed up, which was incredible. Right before I went on, I heard this big ovation from the crowd. I go, 'What's that?' And someone told me, 'Oh, Lightfoot just walked in the room.'
"I was already nervous enough, you know?" he laughs.
Sexsmith comes across as a shy fellow, which is one of the endearing traits of his live shows. That and the fact that he has quietly built up a body of songs that rank with any songwriter in Canadian history, from Secret Heart to Thinking Out Loud and Wishing Well.
Songwriting is Sexsmith's true love.
"I love making records and that, but the whole point for me is the song. Sometimes on the record I don't sing it so well, or sometimes the production isn't right or something. But for me, it's all about the song. Hopefully they stand up and go out into the world and other people can do them.
"That's kind of the honour. Stephen Foster wrote some of the greatest songs of all time, and he never made a single record, you know? But everyone knows Oh Susanna or Camptown Races and all that stuff.
"With a songwriter, you kind of have a shot at immortality. If you're lucky, a few of them hang around after you're gone."
That said, he says it's been a nice change of pace to sing somebody else's songs.
"I used to play covers in bars for years before I was writing, and there's always kind of an added confidence when you're singing somebody else's song. I've been around awhile now, so I feel good singing my songs too. But it is not as pressurized. And when I'm sitting around in my hotel room, that's all I'm doing, singing other people's songs."
The experience of singing Lightfoot songs with an orchestra has been so much fun, he'd like to do it again.
"I would like to do a record of my own songs with strings. Kind of like what Joni [Mitchell] did a few years ago. Now that I think I can sing them better. Because I think on my early records, I couldn't sing all that well. I would love to do that.
"It's the last radio orchestra in North America. Bing used to have a radio show and there was an orchestra there, and he'd sing songs and he had guests. I think the CBC should try something like that, where they put the orchestra . . . to work." He laughs. "Where they have guests on, have a host and everything. I think that would be fun."
jmackie@png.canwest.com
