My friend Ron told me about this Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith from St. Catharines, Ontario. I listened to this song and it’s a beautifully written song. His name seemed familiar and there is a good reason for that. My friend Randy from MostlyMusicCovers covered him this past June. I’m not sure why I didn’t look at him more then.
‘This song was released on his Other Songs album released in 1997. The album won a Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year in 1998‘.
– Max at PowerPop (Ron Sexsmith – Strawberry Blonde)
Last year my friend Max at PowerPop published an article about this beautiful song from Ron Sexsmith. Another song by Ron called Right Down the Line by Gerry Rafferty featured here in June this year. From the scant that I have heard, I have enjoyed Ron Sexsmith’s music especially his covers of Bob Dylan’s tunes. There was a comment in Max’s article from Obbverse which aligns with my sentiments about today’s featured track Strawberry Blonde:
This kind of song is what a songwriter strives for- good melody, good lyrics, good voice and they all gell together to make something beautiful. And in context, what a perfect title.
Now here’s more from Max’s article:
This song came about when he (Ron Sexsmith) was at a playground with his young son and he observed a little girl being looked after by her grandmother because her mom was in rehab. The mix of innocence of the little girl and the problem of drug addiction of her mom played into this song.
She was not the girl next door
But the girl from ’round the corner
It was at the tail end of grade four
When she came to school one morning
And all eyes were upon her as she took her seat
Her name was Amanda with pretty eyes of green
And hair of blonde, strawberry blonde
Springtime and dandelions
And summer ’round the corner
Was at the tail end of age nine
With a million dreams before her
She lived with her mother in an old decrepit house
If there was trouble she kept it to herself
All summer long, the strawberry blonde
And by her face there was no way to tell
It seemed like all was well in her world
But the neighbors said
Her mother had lost her will
To gin and sleeping pills
It was no life for a little girl
Still I see her face framed in blue sky
At the top of a slide coming down
And when the sirens wailed
(Her mother had failed to rise)
All the neighbors stood outside
As Amanda just stared at the ground
Time flies and years are piled
I’d forgotten all about her
When I saw her down the aisle
Of a streetcar with her daughter
Then I heard Amanda say as she got up
“C’mon, Samantha, girl, this is our stop”
And they were gone, two strawberry blondes
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
Thanks for the mention Matt…I really love this song and I was meaning to check his other stuff out.
Hey Max looks like with both got boost today!
Yes we did! I need to go back and listen to more of him.
It’s the least I can do if I can hear a song of this quality. The lyrics are fantastic despite its solemn subject matter and his warm and gentle voice complements it so well.
I had forgotten about him…that is why I said I need to circle back. It’s easy to forget when you deal with so many artists like we do.
I got in so far as some of his Bob Dylan renditions and his fabulous ‘Right Down the Line’ by Gerry Rafferty. I know what you how it can be difficult to dig down deeper on individual artists, but to be honest Ron Sexsmith’s voice I can take in short stints.
Yea I agree with his voice on that but that songwriting really helps.
Yeh, the songwriting here is exemplary and I like the music video also.
Matt…off the topic question. Do you use the notification panel on the right of the screen or do you use a phone for WordPress?
The reason I ask…the right panel is not updating automatically. I have to refresh the screen to get updated comments. That is why sometimes it’s a lot of time between comments.
I only get the notifications if I’m on PC and have my dashboard open. Sometimes I refresh the ‘bell’ if I expect an imminent response. Sometimes I am late to responding as well.
I’m going to get with them tonight…because it’s not refreshing unless I refresh the page.
Your message just came to me now with a red dot on the bell.
I had to contact them a few days ago about a ‘Tag’ bug. I couldn’t add tags. They seemed to correct it.
Oh yes! I had that as well with the tags. When I updated my browser they worked.
See, I read your message before I received it in notifications despite refreshing. The tag thing was frustrating. Also I used to be able to live message customer support as in speak to someone. But I couldn’t do that the last times. Despite some recent hiccups I’ve been generally satisfied with WordPress (Microsoft). How about you? My friend Sharon who disappeared the last month or so, had lots of problems with WordPress, but she didn’t have a personal account. Oh, I wanted to ask you if you get Google messages to your email about ‘validating your page index issues’?
Yea I’m about to see if I can chat to them next. They do have a live chat at times…if it’s on. On your google question…let me see now real time! No I didn’t…I just did a search and came up with nothing
Appreciate the link Matt and certainly enjoyed listening to this song again. As much as I have been a fan of Ron since he praised by Elvis Costello in the mid 90s, it wasn’t until Max had posted that I actually knew what this song was about. I do still feel Ron is still underappreciated but hey that’s the music business for you. When you see him live you really appreciate how talented the guy is.
Well it was Max’s doing since you were the catalyst in the first place. The story behind the song is heartbreaking and I’m glad Max alluded to its background. It must have been great to see him live. I can’t get enough of Ron’s ‘Right Down The Line’ rendition.
A little trivia, for a time he lived on the same street as my daughter in Toronto. She said one day, I think I just saw Ron Sexsmith carrying groceries down my street!
That’s very cool trivia. Thanks for sharing.
You’re most welcome. I am short on brushes with fame so I have to get them in when I can!
That makes two of us. Hehe.
😂
Given his memorable name, perhaps it wasn’t a surprise I immediately remembered the Canadian singer-songwriter, but I couldn’t recall the context. It turned out I included another song by Sexsmith, “Dig Nation,” in a new music post four years ago. “Strawberry Blonde” is great. I didn’t know Sexsmith also wrote “Right Down the Line,” which I really love.
I dig Dig Nation lol
He didn’t write ‘Right Down The Line’ which Rafferty did. He did do a superb version though.
Ah, thanks for correcting me, my bad. Frankly, I was a bit surprised since I thought I had previously seen Rafferty wrote that song!
We’re all human. What a song.