Songwriter Inspired by Local Stories - Windsor Star (May 17th, 2007)

Not to slight Arthur Miller, but it's the life of this salesman that is much more the story.

Singer/songwriter Ron Leary call himself The Travelling Salesman on the weekly radio show on University of Windsor's CJAM-FM (91.5) where he promotes independent performers - troubadours like himself who spend a good part of every year playing in Canada's out-of-the-way clubs.

The 33-year old Leary from Woodstock, Ont., is from a family of country and western musicians. From the age of seven, he played drums and sang in his parents' band, The Corn Huskers.

Windsor has been home the last eight years. From here he sets out on occasional tours across the country and recorded a CD of original songs last year.

Leary also hosts two open-microphone nights at local clubs - Mondays at the Phog Lounge, 157 University Ave. W.; and Tuesdays at the Sky Lounge, 261 Pelissier St.

He has sold nearly 3,000 copies of his independently released CD, theroadinbetween, and got some national exposure for it on both CBC Radio's The Vinyl Café and CBC-TV's summer 2006 series, 11 Cameras.

Leary falls roughly between Nick Drake sensitivity and Ron Sexsmith currency in his music. But he's a much more assured singer, taking his cue from the alt-country of one of his idols, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco.

The songs are distinctly local in colour - he relates small stories of intimate places and people. Ideas occur to him while he takes daily strolls along the Detroit River or hits the blue highways for one of about 170 shows he performs a year.

It's this keen sense of place that has helped Leary land a spot in the media conference, 20 Years of Propaganda?, currently being held in Windsor. Leary will the do the warm-up gig tonight for conference headliner, Juno Award-winner K'Naan, at the Chrysler Theatre. The concert begins at 8:15pm and is open to the public - tickets $18.50 at the door.

K'Naan from war-torn Mogadishu, now calls Canada home, and Leary knows why.

"The more I travel around Canada, the more I appreciate this country and what it offers," he said.

At the end of May, Leary returns to Canada's Maritimes for a brief tour. He'll be in Windsor and southern Ontario through mid-August, then he's off on a five-week cross-country jaunt beginning in British Columbia.

"I get asked a lot if I'd ever move to the States," he said, "I'm up for going anywhere any time if there's an adventure to be involved. But I'm content to live here."

Leary first came to Windsor in 1993 to study percussion at the University of Windsor. But apart from learning how to play marimba with four mallets, there wasn't much he could learn in those 18 months in terms of expression, he said.

"I got out and went back to approaching my music on an emotional level instead of an intellectual level."

He took several years off and wrote music. He also added guitar to an instrumental arsenal that includes drums and piano. In 1998, Leary was back at the University of Windsor studying history.

"My favourite class was Larry Kulisek's local history course," he said. "One of the reasons I'm drawn to this area is its rich, local history."

In his final year, he won a scholarship for an essay he wrote on the punk music scene in Windsor in the 1970s.

His travels have brought him to verdant cultural oases like Wakefield, Que., and Wolfville, N.S., high on his list of memorable stops. Recently, he discovered another not 30 minutes from his west Windsor home - Amherstburg.

"Imagine, a thriving community right in my backyard," he said, " Eventually, I'll write songs about many of these places."

back