Bobby Leger’s debut CD Imaginary Dream is loaded with fantastic blues songs and some fine songs influenced by the blues. Leger’s voice is often a plaintive scream. At other times it’s a drawling lead vocal over a slow boil build up. His flair for writing and co-writing the music that best serves his voice is on full display in these ten knock out, drag out original numbers.
Opening track “Hard Times” muscles its way out of the stereo speakers with aggressive horns, piano, and a forceful rhythm section. Leger sings it with easy going assurance and a handsome, sandpaper voice that means business. His guitar work cuts through the soundscape with its lean, mean chops and lithe moves. Here, Leger sings like a man who has seen “Hard Times” and has lived to tell about it.
“Hideout” has a friskier groove and speedier tempo. Leger’s guitar emits high pitched melodic notes that “sing” this song as much as his voice while Alizon Lissance pounds her piano in true rock and roll style. Leger’s sings this one like an anthem of self-liberation as much as like a bluesy classic rock tune. It’s full of the kind of fun expected from bar bands and people looking for a good time when they go out.
A soulful accordion coats with tender emotion the down tempo “That Letter,” a story of rejection that plunges the singer into depths of somber isolation. Leger makes us feel it with his unfurling, lilting vocal and with his emotive guitar simmer. One can picture him at the bar drowning his sorrows while he bares his soul throughout this piece.
“Waitin’ For The One” throws things back into up tempo territory. Here, Leger extols the virtues of the one he hasn’t met yet with a fitting rock and roll attitude. He whips out a feisty guitar line while belting his simple but expressive chorus.
Leger and his backing musicians are all class on his blues torch number “Will You Miss Me When I Go.” His voice is elegantly mournful and he emotes like the best of them as he makes his way through this contemplation of his life as a rolling stone. His fanciful, smooth, and soulful guitar work could’ve been polished with wax as it shines with brilliant notes and changes. Jazz bar piano and Sebastian Leger’s vibrant trumpet line make this all into one fine, colorful mesh.
“Light The Light” is as jubilant as its title suggests. Leger is fiercer at the microphone here while Lissance slaps plenty of rock and roll boogie out of her piano. This one takes no prisoners as it moves forward with energy, swaggering confidence, and some of the most solid rhythms around.
“Evil Hearted Girl” has the wide, sweeping sound of a western film score. Leger drawls his message of an emissary from hell as an elegant trumpet emotes forlornly in the backdrop. A maraca gives off its suggestive rattle as Leger sounds more frantic and plaintive as the song progresses. It’s an epic feeling number with a lot of cool things going on at once. Leger makes the listener feel the impact made by the song’s title girl. For some reason or other, I keep expecting him to draw his pistol to take out The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.
Back into more bracing blues-rock terrain, “She’s Coming Back Home” stomps forward with a solid groove courtesy of bassist Ron Chane and drummer Jeff Casper. Lissance slaps out assertive piano chords while Leger takes his time listing his enthusiasm in his lolling vocal melody line. As a singer, he certainly finds the right feel for this number and let’s the good times roll.
“Movin’” is exactly what it sounds like. This instrumental moves at a breakneck pace with hard rocking verve. There is no blues here. This has a groove that reminds of Rush while the guitar work could be influenced by Ted Nugent. One is reminded of Leger’s ability to play fast and hot enough to start a fire with his incendiary technique.
Closing out with “Dreams Are Hard To Find,” a play on the album’s title, Imaginary Dream, Leger leaves us with a pleasant sound but a daunting message. He’s content but wise enough to know he has to settle for whatever he can to be content with. His vocal glide is handsome, tender, reaching the listener’s soft spot while making his song feel like a personal conversation at the bar.
Leger was winning music awards back in the 1960s. He may have waited a long time to release his debut album, but it was worth the wait for his many fans. He’ll likely be able to open some previously closed doors by using this disc as his calling card. It’s a blast.
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