Comparisons are elusive, but not since Gram Parsons/Poco/New Riders/Marshall Tucker has the genre been melded properly with the intangible “it” to create something new and exciting. His high, lonesome and twangy voice nearly floats atop a bed of not quite country rock and sometimes slightly cosmic American music.

Others have attempted this feat: the short-lived Southern California band Beachwood Sparks or “Cold Roses”-era Ryan Adams. But Rondeau has them beat because he not only makes good use of fiddles, banjos, mandolins, dobros and steel guitars, he’s a storyteller as well.

Much of his subject matter involves women who’ve done their men wrong in one way or another, but he also regales with tales of ramblers, barflies, middle-aged women with small-town blues, and siblings coming of age in the Old West.

Check out some of this wordplay:

(from “You Ain’t for Me”)

(and from “Rhinestones”)

Down at the End of the Bar is a relentlessly polished release from a country singer who’s had nothing but good press thrown his way since the release of his debut album, Bangs, Bullets, and the Turtle Mountatins. Leo Rondeau’s skittish, warbley vocals sound warm, toned and confident on his latest release as he tells tales of boozing loners, love gone awry, and clueless heretics. There are many sides to Rondeau on Bar. The impressionable, and slyly passionate yodelings that dress the album are trademark and come off especially appealing on the folksy “She’ll Get the Advantage” and “Better Place for You,” both vulnerable points for Rondeau and Bar. They manage, however, to wear their vulnerability well.

Rondeau also displays a wit of country balladry on the fatalistic “Had I Known” (”Kept it in my heart it was only self defense/ But I’d shoot a man down if I ever had the chance”). The title track from Bar, a lonely remit of a barfly too young, is awash in steel and waltz-time guitars giving Rondeau a beer-soaked background to muse over in a lazy drawl. His voice gives steam to songs that would otherwise sound contrived. “Weary Owls” gives a willing glance towards alt-country while “Rhinestones” is redeemed by Rondeau’s ear for a good hook and a heavy country back beat.

A more whimsical and adventurous Rondeau comes through in the Dixieland flavored “Rapture” (“Where did everybody go?”/ Chorus: “Rapture!”) and “Blues Came Today” (“Here’s to supposing if the world was frozen/ I wouldn’t be the only one who was blue”). He writes with simplicity, but in a half-drunk tongue-in-cheek air and with an artful lack of symmetry in his melodies through much of the album, so his songs are always a few steps ahead of the norm. More sober tunes like “Elephant in this Room” and the lament, “Had I Known” do well combining Rondeau’s idiosyncratic writing with the artist’s forlorn and darker side. While they might not entertain as well as other more sunny tracks, they provide the album with a depth that would otherwise be minuscule.

Perhaps Rondeau’s greatest talent lies in his ability to write achingly honest county songs without sounding like he meant to and thereby spoiling their Western pedigree. Influenced by earlier country and folk legends such as *Robert Earl Keen and Townes van Zandt, Rondeau displays a striking wit in his lyricism that drive the songs. His focus is on the words and the characters that he sings about. His songs are meditated and composed with such maturity, that his writing verges on an unwitting and mystical passing of the torch. 

*I have never listened to Robert Earl Keen, not that there is anything wrong with that.  It's just not factual.

http://www.flanfire.com/2009/03/31/deadman-rondeau-moonpies-all-good-stuff/

Leo’s songs are so good that he had people lined up around the block to get in on this new recording.  Chris “Howdy” Darrell on bass and Chris Wallis on drums are the staples here — but the boys have tons of help from the likes of Jim Stringer (guitar), Burton Lee and Ricky Ray Jackson (pedal steel), Cindy Cashdollar (dobro, steel), Matt Mollica (piano), David Seeman (banjo), Silas Lowe (mandolin), Oliver Steck (trumpet), Jon Doyle (clarinet), Ricky Turpin (fiddle), Cary Ozanian (Wurlitzer and harmony vocals), Darwin Smith (bells), Lisa Pankratz (drums on “Weary Owls”), Mike Nicolai (tambourine and vocals), with additional harmony vocals from Brennen Leigh, Mario Matteoli, Vaughn Walters, Jenny Parrott, and Maria Mabra.  Just as exciting, the album art is by Landry McMeans, with photos by Jon Bolden, and Darwin mixed the music that was engineered by ANdrew Hernandez at Premium Recording.

Mike Harmeier says that Leo’s new release is “the best country record I’ve ever heard.”  This writer has already called Leo the new Merle Haggard, with a little George Strait (his good looks!) thrown in.  Cut 1 is a “slam” on Cajun Country — “I never quite got their dancin’ right,” says the guy who is “No Friend to Louisiann,” even though his music has the Cajun rhythm just so very right (maybe Turpin’s fiddle and Stringer’s great guitar have something to do with that!). 

The title cut slows it down:  this song is about “all the men at the bar in various stages of hair loss, so they cover it up with a cap, some grew it long in the back ….”   This, folks, is a waltz!  Leo’s lyrics here are both humorous and deeply reflective of the sad state of life in far too much of America … people without real hope, yet ever trying to get some satisfaction.  “You Ain’t for Me” features a nice piano solo from Mollica, who is much more known for his work on the B-3.  “Weary Owls” is a song I have heard for a long time but never knew the title — Ricky Jackson’s opening pedal steel signals that this is a song to be reckoned with.  Sure, it’s about a “pretty little whore” and a troubadour who “turned 21 pickin’ on the big grandstand, drunker than an Indian robbed of his land …” — Gram Parsons would have loved this tune.

“She’ll Get the Advantage” is about a gal from a wreck of a home who “found solace in romance novels” and is “so far below average,” but still has hope that someday things will get better.  Cashdollar is featured here.  “Rapture” has the full show — horns, harmonies, and hilarity — a song that visualizes what might happen if people really are yanked from this early life in an instant.  This is also one of my favorite lawyer jokes of all time — it deserves a LOT of airplay worldwide! 

“Blues Came Today” again slows it down, just right for a cheatin’ song — Brennen Leigh’s harmonies help make this a real memory, and then there’s Burton’s sad steel.  “Rhinestones” gets going with both Burton and Cindy — a song of a romantic misadventure about a woman who was ”always quite a trophy but never much of a wife.”  The ”Elephant in This Room”  is “taking up all of the space” — that third wheel in a relationship who gets in the way of what might be love.  Okay - on THIS song, Leo sounds more like that guy in the tight pants.  Oliver again opens up “Had I Known,” a Western (not country) ballad that could be 150 years old — indeed, it is a tale of a Confederate gunslinger who justified his killing by claiming self-defense, an outlaw who finally is captured and ready to die on the gallows.  This is as good as anything Marty Robbins ever wrote.  The final cut is the simplest –with banjo and fiddle only.  Leo sings that “I’ve been doing all I could dodedodedo to make the world a “Better Place for You.”  Such a simple statement — one that just might be from Leo’s real life.  Thanks, Leo, for sharing your songs with all of us — and no wonder you had so many friends wanting to help out.

Jan The Lazyman schreef recentelijk over Leo Rondeau, die tijdens het South by South West festival in Texas optradt, waardoor ik mij begon te boeien wie deze man was en hoe zijn tweede cd “Down At The End of the Bar” zou klinken. Opgegroeid in North Dakota en inmiddels verhuist naar Austin, Texas brengt Leo Rondeau in 2007 zijn debuutcd uit “Bangs, Bullets and the turtle Mountains”. Deze cd stond bol van de country, Honky-tonky nummers en bluegrass. Van de laatstgenoemde stijl is op Leo Rondeau’s tweede cd “Down At The End Of The Bar” weinig meer te vinden. Leo Rondeau bezit zo’n heerlijk snik in zijn stem, die je geboeid laat blijven luisteren. Twee man stonden aan de basis van deze prachtige schijf: Leo Rondeau en bassist Chris Darrell. Het tweetal kreeg in de studio o.a. hulp van Burton Lee en Ricky Ray Jackson – Pedalsteel, Cindy Cashdollar – Dobro, David Seeman – Banjo, Silas Low – Mandoline en Lisa Pankraz – Drums. Met een stem die varieert tussen Merle Haggardt en een nog jonge neil young is Leo Rondeau op “Down at the end of the bar” een verademing.

Onze storytelling country-singer/songwriter brengt op zijn nieuwe cd een mix van cajun ( opener “No Friend to Louisanna), countrywaltzes in het titelnummer en in “Blues Came Today” met schitterende harmonieen, want die worden hier gelukkig niet geschuwd, lekkere zwemele country in “Weary Owls”, dat gaat over een hoer en een troubadour die pas 21 zijn geworden. Gram Parsons klinkt hier overduidelijk doorheen.
De swing/jaren 40 stijl komt ook om de hoek kijken in het nummer “Rhinestones met Cindy Cashdollar op Dobro en Burton Lee op pedaalsteel in de hoofdrollen en dat iedere keer terugkomende “TAXMAN”. Meeblerren in de bar. In het schitterende “Had I known” krijgt Leo Rondeau in eerste instantie hulp van spaans klinkende trompetten om het vervolgens heel kaal te houden met acoustische guitaar, pedaalsteel en banjo. De ballad  “Better Place To You’ sluit met Leo, omringt door een banjo en fiddle  deze “Down At The End Of The Bar” prachtig af. Een, naar mijn mening, werkelijk ontzettend leuke tweede  cd met een mix van countrywaltz en honk-tonk nummers van iemand waar ik echt hoop dat we hier in Nederland nog veel van gaan horen.



Alt Country NL
by wiebren rijkeboer
http://www.altcountry.nl/blog/2009/06/leo-rondeau/
*Google this then click on the "Translate this page" option to read in english

Met zijn denimkleding, cowboyhoed en pose doet Leo Rondeau op de hoes van Down At The End Of The Bar (eigen beheer) mij denken aan Guy Clark en diens Old No.1. Muzikaal tapt Rondeau toch uit een ander vaatje, al biedt hij op zijn tweede album onvervalste countryrock. Rondeau is afkomstig uit de bergen van North Dakota, houdt van de natuur en de ruimte, en van de muziek van Waylon Jennings. Op Down At The End Of The Bar schiet Rondeau heen en weer tussen aanstekelijke bluegrass, lekkere countryrock, fraaie singer-songwritersliedjes en een enkele ragtime (Rapture). In zijn band zijn het de pedal steel, dobro, banjo en de harmoniezang die van Leo Rondeau een prominente plaats hebben gekregen in de elf eigen composities. Met klasseliedjes als Down At The End Of The Bar, Had I Known, Weary Owls - met op drums de fameuze Lisa Pankratz - en het Gram & Emmylou-getinte Blues Came Today is Leo Rondeau een jeugdige exponent van old-style country, die beslist trots mag zijn op zijn Down At The End Of The Bar. Verkrijgbaar bij CD Baby.


Austin Chronicle
by Margaret Moser

This local songwriter from North Dakota has gathered impressive support for Down at the End of the Bar, including Brennen Leigh, Lisa Pankratz, and Shotgun Party's Jenny Parrott. Rondeau's jaunts into Dixieland ("Rapture") and country ("Had I Known") are effortlessly pleasing, as are natural forays off the beaten path of his alt.country style ("Rhinestones," "Weary Owls").


5 Feet High & Rising
Posted by Moonshiner

Originally from North Dakota, Leo Rondeau’s now lives Austin, Texas. His 2007 debut, "Bangs, Bullets and the Turtle Mountains", mixes traditional country and bluegrass and is mostly about stories of his younger days in ND. His latest album is called "Down at the End of the Bar" and it continues on from where his debut left off. And as with the first CD, it is self-released via cdbaby or iTunes.

Rondeau possess that classic gravel-based country voice that sounds as old as time itself and much like other new kids on the block, Ryan Bingham and Hayes Caryl, he is sure to keep gaining new fans.

*This person also had my album in their Best of 2009 category!