Your 14th album release is a funny time to discover your optimistic side, although anyone who follows Ron Sexsmith on Twitter will attest to the Canadian’s driest of humours. Carousel One, named after the luggage belt in LA airport where checked baggage from Toronto ends up, sees the singer-songwriter delivering his most upbeat collection of songs to date.
As he attests on the bright and breezy opener, ‘Sure As The Sky’, “Things are looking up”. This positive mood survives over the course of most of these 14 songs, from ‘Lucky Penny’ (“She’s my lucky penny, when I ain’t got a lousy dime”) to the feelgood honkytonk of ‘Getaway Car’, the bright and breezy ‘Sun’s Coming Out’ and even the wry humour of ‘No One’.
It’s not as if he’s suddenly turned into Monty Python, although ‘Saint Bernard’ is a lo-fi campfire ode to the mountain rescue dog, where Sexsmith shows off a heretofore hidden line in self-deprecating humour thus: “Who else is gonna rescue me when I’m face down in the snow?/ No other dog looks more like me and could fill in when I’m ill and unable to make a show?”
Of course, Sexsmith still knows how to pen a truly sad song with aplomb, and ‘Nothing Feels The Same Anymore’ positively wallows in its misery, like Bridget Jones on downers (“It feels as though heaven has closed the door”). Meanwhile, there’s the wonderfully old time ‘Before The Light Is Gone’, the beautifully bittersweet ‘All Our Tomorrows’, the maudlin Elvis Costello-like ‘Many Times’ and the whirling Wurlitzer-led ‘Can’t Get My Act Together’, which casts Sexsmith as an unlikely hellraiser.
Throughout, Sexsmith is ably backed by a band of seasoned veterans, including guitarist John Graboff (Dr. John), bassist Bob Glaub (John Lennon, Lucinda Williams) keyboard player John McGinty (Matthew Sweet) and drummer Don Heffington (Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris). Together they create an album that showcases the singer’s warm, fuzzy and even funny side.

Key Track - 'Lucky Penny'