The Rawnboy Archive

It did my old heart good to see so much love being shown for Ron Sexsmith over at Charity Chic Music the other day (here) - in a just and proper world he'd be a huge star. Ron has released over a dozen fine albums in the past 20 years, though he has also produced a vast hidden archive of acoustic performances that many are unaware of. On his Rawnboy YouTube channel, Ron regularly shares his own solo stripped back cover versions, filmed live, straight onto his laptop, recorded wherever he happens to be in his house or hotel room, whenever the mood takes him. He started sharing these intimate performances three years ago and is still adding to them once or twice a week. The songs Ron chooses to sing range from the classic; Beatles, Stones, Motown, Cohen, Dylan, Kinks etc, to the less predictable; Pink Floyd, Horslips, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Boston, Culture Club, Deep Purple, Kiss, Genesis etc and touches on all points in between. In addition to the covers, Ron also takes the time to revisit his own repertoire, offering up bare-bones solo readings of the majority of his back catalogue.

Here are just a few samples from Rawnboy, but I warn you - once you start digging through the huge archive, it's very hard to stop.

A World That's Long Gone