Andrew Danso

New York City doesn’t hold the crown for drive-time rock, New Jersey have had Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen clutch onto it tightly for the past twenty years, and then there’s the Canadian Bryan Adams. New Yorker Bob Dee writes a kind of rock similar to the old timers, perhaps without their edge, but with the same straight-face.

Dee isn’t a fresh prodigy hitting the scene anew. He’s been part of a few projects around the globe, shooting music videos of his own tunes in France and Canada as well as co-writing a track with producer Desmond Child. He also has a body of work behind him - four EPs all with the band Petro. It’s a strange band title, ‘Bob Dee with Petro’, as by the sounds of things these are tunes embodied by Dee, completing all of the writing and front of house performing. The name 'Bob Dee' alone would be fine. It’s not as if both names carry much weight by being famous rock artists. No matter, it’s a herring most fans in the genre would overlook in place for the quality of music, which is certainly up to scratch.

This sort of music is made to fill stadiums, and if enough tickets were sold it would likely fill with happy punters, assuming they don’t mind Dee’s dodgy wordplay and clichéd lyrics. It’s the same problem which plagued Bryan Adams albums reaching the kind of acclaim Crowded House records would garner; it’s that the subject matter was always the same. Bob Dee’s “Tell Me” is about his love for an unspecified woman, over the tones of him groaning like a megastar and strumming his guitar dispassionately. “Lips That Heal” is presumably about, erm… feeling better from having feeling worse after kissing an unknown lady. It’s cliché ridden, but fans should find plenty to love here, if they’re willing to buy into the fantasy.

“Up All Night” isn’t going to surprise anyone, but regulars of the genre shouldn’t worry: Bob Dee riffs in the same formula of drive-time rock’s most established oldies, best played on a breezy sunny day blasting out of a convertible sports car. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

http://bobdeewithpetro.bandcamp.com/