Ron Hynes is one of Newfoundland’s most beloved performers, a 40 year veteran of the music industry, and a man who’s stared his demons down.
The recent documentary The Man of a Thousand Songs features Hynes telling his own difficult story —in three different narrative voices, representing the divergent aspects of the person, the persona, and the myth.
When Ron’s management asked if we could accommodate him on The Woodshed Sessions, we were thrilled: the author of “St. John’s Waltz” and “Sonny’s Dream“, among hundreds of others, he is one of Canada’s acknowledged masters of song. And the new directions he’s taken with his latest album, Stealing Genius, intrigued us.
But we couldn’t help wondering who would show up for the interview.
Would we meet the humble hometown boy from Ferryland, the soulful singer-songwriter, or The Man of a Thousand Songs, with his legendary, larger-than-life persona and all the issues that go with it?
Who is Ron Hynes when he’s at home? That’s what we wanted to know in The Woodshed Sessions, Episode 14
Full performances of “Sawchuk”, “I Love You More Than God” and “House” follow, along with the complete, unedited interview.
Ron Hynes – Sawchuk from Roots Music Canada on Vimeo.
Ron Hynes – I Love You More Than God from Roots Music Canada on Vimeo.
Full length Ron Hynes interview from Roots Music Canada on Vimeo.
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Great work folks!
Thanks for also including the unedited interview. I watched the documentary a few weeks back, and came away from it wanting to know more, wanting to get to know Ron more… this is a great little glimpse.
I became a fan while watching Ron’s documentary at OCFF last October. He was in the room and I was struck by his bravery, not so much in making the film, but in standing at the back of the room while colleagues and total strangers walked around in the stirring performances and deep deep sorrows of his life so far. There is a moment in the film that reduced me to uncontrollable sobbing and I believe that moment will enrich my own song writing for a long time to come. Ron is singing “Sonny’s Dream” in a Newfoundland pub, surrounded by rapt faces, and I became overwhelmed by a sense of all the absent fathers sacrificing their lives to a doomed fishery, and the implications both for the children of Newfoundland and for Newfoundland herself.
I enjoyed Ron’s candor very much. We’ve all had our peaks and valleys life throws at us but you gotta dust off and get aboard the Freedom Train over and over again. Ron gets to do it with 1000 songs sticking out of his back pocket and probably that many friends to boot. He’ll be entertaining us for a good long while……