Collection One The Peacock, The Deer, And The Moon is a perfectly polished diamond in the rough of a rock/blues/jazz album.
Masterfully presented jazz instrumentals blend with Bruce Ley’s growling blues voice and a rock underbeat; the album is deliberately processed into its rough, wild and gritty musical niche.
Ley’s talent, and the entire album, has so many great aspects to it, from the instrument to the voice, the lyrics and song diversity. It presents so many layers to wade through that it took several listens to fully appreciate Collection One and decide how I felt about it.
My first listening, I really liked the album simply because it’s jazz and blues. However, the second time I listened I didn’t like it as much because I wasn’t fully paying attention and decided many of the songs had the same tempo and feel — untrue.
But Ley had the talent and power to win me back. Now, with each layer exposed and the songs fully absorbed, I find myself easily getting lost in the music and it’s dominating my attention span.
Collection One The Peacock, The Deer, And The Moon is a spicy blues and soul musical mixture with sass and bite that grabs you and doesn’t let go.
Because of the assortment of themes represented in the songs, it’s difficult to rate one against another — apples to oranges syndrome — however, Great Big Bottom is a swinging song and so much fun to shout out and sing for. The amusing song is topped off with a lively piano track
Ley covers everything from heartache and love to the unrelenting chokehold of consumer driven society and Let’s Get It Right is a crowning gem in an array of beautiful tracks. The soul and passion poured into the song drives straight through the listeners’ veins and Ley’s voice is perfection, especially for such a tempestuous song.