Leslie Rich: Press

GEEKLOVE is an understated acoustic treasure from one of our most under-rated songwriters.

A songwriter too long unnoticed by the music industry in Ireland and a performer who consistently defies the norm of solo and group performance, on an Island bogged down by band mentality

State of the art entertainment facilities such as the Waterfront and The Odyssey might bring the superstars of today, but where do tomorrow’s stars shine? Forget the manufactured TV sensationalism of such shows as Pop Idol and Star for a Night. Instead join Leslie Rich and the Rocket Soul Choir (for) the launch of his 2nd Album, ‘The Written Lie’. This (is a) brilliant new album, full of creeping, probing rhythms, which melt into melodic breaks…. Defining good music in words is a clumsy task….. The point is these are not superficial pop songs: they are born naturally from moods of loneliness, frustration, irrationality, happiness, lust and foreboding. The ability to make music is a gift, to make good music requires devotion, hard work , and faith in what you’re doing. In this way Leslie Rich is not a pop star, he is an artist who has been determinedly applying his craft, both locally and abroad. His diligence in self promotion has led him to set up an American Rocket Soul Choir for his gigs throughout the US. Last summer he wowed Finland in their annual musical festivals. I can only urge you to witness Leslie Rich and the Rocket Soul Choir blast off into another orbit.

Red Sea 01-28-05. Rich drove on relentlessly through his set, I found I couldn’t immediately categorize him as sounding like anybody I knew well. (Nick Drake on speed came to mind later on; some might point to Eliot Smith or Mark Eitzel, for whom Rich has opened in the past.) Furious rhythmically and complex lyrically, Rich’s songs seemed to be less reaching towards heaven or redemption than realizing that here in the purgatory of modern life, we just have to reckon with the capricious meanderings of fate and callous disregard of time, the noisy collision of the material and musical worlds, the tedium of the Standard Questionnaire (as one of his songs is titled) that can define the aimless lives of most everyone in western civilization. On the catchy, melodic “Made Up My Mind” during the set Rich sang “I made up my mind/I ain’t going nowhere/you can kiss my arse/I’m going nowhere”—a kind of ironic simultaneous rebellion of spirit and resignation to stasis. Which is indeed more interesting than a Bud ad on the wall, in my view.