Deke Leonard's Iceberg / Man ‎– BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert (Reissue) (1973/1993) Lossless

Though Deke Leonard had made his reputation playing progressive rock in the Welsh group Man, his first solo album has more of a roots rock feel than anything released by that band. Roots rock played by someone with a taste for odd arrangements, perhaps, but roots rock nevertheless. "Lisa" and "Jesse" both sound like something that the Band might have turned out, country fiddle, organ, and all, though Leonard's distinctive, reedy voice makes it unlikely that anyone is actually going to mistake one for the other. Rockabilly comes in for some attention too, as in the delirious "Hard Way to Live," a nutty high-octane track in which the already treble-voiced Leonard deliberately goes falsetto at the end of each verse to hilarious effect. At other points, Leonard channels Badfinger, as with the plaintive "Nothing Is Happening," a lovely song with poetic, wistful lyrics. Leonard even tosses in a pair of cuts that would have fit in nicely on a Man album, "Broken Ovation" and "717151." It's no surprise that his old mates from Man dropped in for guest appearances on those cuts and a few others, the best of which is the odd but pleasant instrumental "The Ghost of Musket Flat." There are a few throwaway tracks, a few experiments, but the general mood is one of low-key charm. Deke Leonard didn't try to break a whole lot of stylistic ground on Iceberg, but what he did he did well, and it is probably his best solo album.