Ron Hynes remembered as legend, poet by East Coast artists
'He spoke of things everybody knew but he spoke of them in ways only a poet could speak'
Artists and fellow musicians are remembering singer-songwriter Ron Hynes, who many say set a new standard for songwriting in Atlantic Canada.
Hynes died Thursday in St. John's at the age of 64. Known as the "the man of a thousand songs," he had announced earlier this month he was once again fighting cancer.
Dave Gunning, a folk singer from Pictou County, says Hynes's thoughtful lyrics raised the bar for musicians across the region.
"Anyone that really discovered Ron, or got into listening to his material, you couldn't help but be moved by it, be inspired by it. It was unbelievably brilliant," he said.
Gunning says the man he came to call a friend and collaborator was complicated, but far from the dark persona he sometimes exuded.
"When I got to know Ron I just fell in love with him. He was so childlike, young at heart and soul," he said. "He was also tortured, he couldn't help but write. It was going to come out of him whether he wanted it to or not."
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Gunning learned of Hynes's death while songwriting with fellow artist Thom Swift. They stayed up late Thursday writing together, remembering their friend.
'The legend is just going to grow'
"He was friends to so many of us," Gunning said of the East Coast music community. "It's a family. So we've lost a family member and our hero. There's a huge hole."
Swift says Hynes will be known as one of Canada's greatest songwriters, in part because he was gifted at capturing human experiences that were relatable far beyond the shores of his home in Newfoundland.
"He had such a command on the songwriting craft that he pulled you in and made you feel a part of whatever he was thinking about," Swift said.
"In Ron's case, the legend is just going to grow and grow and continue to inspire. For years from now people are going to be discovering the depth of his catalogue of his songs," said Gunning.
Hynes released 11 albums over his 30-year career, earning several ECMA Awards and nominations for Junos and Canadian Country Music Awards.
Musician J.P. Cormier says it was a testament to Hynes's influence that people in Ireland once thought his folk song Sonny's Dream, which he wrote in 1976, was a traditional tune there.
"Ron told me the story many times how he found the song recorded by somebody over there and had to fight with him because they didn't believe he wrote it," he said.
A singer who wrote like a poet
Cormier says Hynes was honest about his own life and feelings — sometimes painfully so — something that set him apart from other songwriters.
"Ron had no fear. He didn't care. He wasn't going to apologize, wasn't going to make excuses. He was Ron," Cormier said on Friday from Westville, N.S.
"He was a common man. He spoke of things everybody knew but he spoke of them in ways only a poet could speak."
Author Donna Morrissey, who considered Hynes a friend, said he had a knack for making even simple stories poignant.
"His legacy is huge. He's one of the great poets. I would say he was the poet laureate for sure of Atlantic Canada, if not Canada itself. Just probably more unrecognized one," she said.
Morrissey, who is also from Newfoundland and now lives in Halifax, says she always has one of his albums in her car, in part, because his music inspires her to write.
"Above everything, above the profundity of his music and his lyrics, he was just a kick-ass man on stage. People just loved him. He just reached out and pulled us all into the grip of his enthusiasm, and his passion."