I’m pretty sure that Bob Leslie has been around for quite a while yet his album “Red Roses On A Cold Blue Morning” was the first of his albums to make it as far as my ears. In the interests of science, I tried my best to dislike this album but, despite my best efforts, I ended up liking it. I hate when that happens.
Bob – I am sure he won’t mind me calling him by his first name – knows how to tell a story in a song and, undoubtedly, has taken a long cool drink from the well of sentimentality. Bob also sings like your Uncle Joe who used to be in a band back when being in band was just what a growing boy would want yet there is something continuously appealing about his high mileage style and that something is his whimsical sense of humour that makes his words – “More Salt Than Pepper” is a fine example - seem wryly angled against the, almost trendy, Americana accompaniment. Truth be told, you don’t get much in the way of whimsy these days and, if that wasn’t enough of a reason to lend this album your ears, Bob even takes a deep breath and weaponises his excess of whimsy with “Fat Cat” being marked with the stamp of serious matters.
Like I said at the start, I should have disliked this album but “Red Roses On A Cold Blue Morning” provided more than enough proof that Bob Leslie knows the value that can be found in a song. In fact, I feel a smile coming on.
The album is available from Bandcamp and the usual digital places.