Ron Sexsmith at the Kings Arms

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

In one of his relaxed asides between songs, Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith quipped the weekend weather made him feel right at home.

And maybe it was a good thing he was playing on this icy night - homesickness might have made Sexsmith's melancholy streak just too wide for the intimate confines of the sold-out Kings Arms.

As it was, Sexsmith, accompanied by just his meticulous acoustic guitar playing, proved a heart-melting experience.

Even with the limited dynamics of the solo show, it brought the focus down to the little things that make Sexsmith's best songs so resonant: the vocal phrasing, the vivid vignettes about the sad places in God Bless This Cheap Hotel or Lebanon, Tennessee, and the little flourishes on his guitar.

Last here about five years ago, Sexsmith now has six albums behind him and a few more rock-celebrity endorsements to his name.

That made for a set which leaned heavily on his most recent Cobblestone Highway, but had enough for those who first twigged to his brilliant self-titled 1995 effort.

And it included stirring covers of Bob Dylan's Ring Them Bells and Reason to Believe by Tim Hardin - an influence Sexsmith says he didn't know he had until the comparisons started.

It would have been good to hear him at the piano as he had hoped for some variation (somebody forgot to pack the ivories).

But by the time Sexsmith had reached his encores of his best-known early songs, Secret Heart and Speaking with the Angel, the show came down to a simple exchange: Ron croons, you swoon.