Leon Redbone

Redbone at Massey Hall, Toronto, Canada in 2007

While living in Canada in the late 1960s,[2] Redbone began performing in public at Toronto area nightclubs and folk music festivals. He met Bob Dylan at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1972. Dylan was so impressed by Redbone's performance that he mentioned it in a Rolling Stone interview,[5] leading that magazine to do a feature article on Redbone a year before he had a recording contract.[6] The article described his performances as "so authentic you can hear the surface noise [of an old 78 rpm]."[7] Dylan said that if he had ever started a label, he would have signed Redbone.[8] His first album, On the Track, was released by Warner Bros. Records in 1975.[7]

He was introduced to a larger public as a semi-regular musical guest on NBC's Saturday Night Live, appearing twice in the first season.[9][10] During the 1980s and '90s Redbone was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He was also a guest on A Prairie Home Companion.[11]

A self-taught musician, he played by ear, sometimes changing the chords of established tunes, never rehearsing with a band, and not following set lists.[2] In an interview printed in the Winter 2017 edition (No. 177) of BING magazine, the publication of the International Club Crosby, clarinetist Dan Levinson recounted working with Redbone:

I toured with Redbone for 12 years. We used to listen to early Crosby while we were on the road. [Redbone's] taste in music was more eclectic than that of anyone I've ever known -- it included Emmett Miller, Blind Blake, Paganini, Caruso, Gene Austin, John McCormack, Moran and Mack, Cliff Edwards, Jelly Roll Morton, Ted Lewis, Mustafa the Castrato, the Hungarian singer Imre Laszlo, Jimmie Rodgers ('the Singing Brakeman'), Mongolian throat singers, W. C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy ... and early Bing Crosby.

Redbone was described as "both a musical artist and a performance artist whose very identity was part of his creative output."[2] He usually dressed in attire reminiscent of the Vaudeville era, performing in a Panama hat with a black band and dark sunglasses, often while sitting at attention on a stool, with a white coat and trousers with a black string tie.[12] With his reluctance to discuss his past came speculation that "Leon Redbone" was an alternative identity for another performer.[13] Two common suggestions in years past were Andy Kaufman and Frank Zappa,[14] both of whom Redbone outlived. Though sometimes compared to Zappa and Tom Waits for "the strength and strangeness of his persona", he exclusively played music from decades before the rock era, and disdained "blatant sound for people to dance to".[2] In a 1991 interview, he said: "The only thing that interests me is history, reviewing the past and making something out of it."[2]

Redbone survived a small plane crash in Clarksburg, West Virginia, on February 12, 1979.[4] He traveled to engagements exclusively by car, saying, "I carry around many unusual items and devices. They make life difficult for airport security personnel and flying impossible for me."[4]

On May 19, 2015 on his website, his publicist referred to concerns about his health and announced his retirement from performing and recording.[15]

Redbone died on May 30, 2019, following complications from dementia.[16] At the time of his death he was living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in hospice care.[8][17] He is survived by his wife Beryl Handler, daughters Blake and Ashley, and three grandchildren.[18]

A statement on Redbone’s website noted his death with cheeky humor: "It is with heavy hearts we announce that early this morning, May 30th, 2019, Leon Redbone crossed the delta for that beautiful shore at the age of 127."[19] His longtime publicist Jim Della Croce confirmed that his age was, in fact, 69.[8]

• On the Track (Warner Bros., 1975)
• Double Time (Warner Bros., 1977)
• Champagne Charlie (Warner Bros., 1978)
• From Branch to Branch (Atco, 1981)
• Red to Blue (Sugar Hill, 1985)
• Christmas Island (Blue Thumb, 1987)
• No Regrets (Blue Thumb, 1988)
• Christmas Island (Universal Music Canada, 1988)
• Sugar (Rounder, 1990)
• Up a Lazy River (Blue Thumb, 1992)
• Whistling in the Wind (Private Music, 1994)
• Any Time (Rounder, 2001)
• Flying By (August, 2014)
• Long Way from Home: Early Recordings (Third Man, 2016)

• Rhino Hi-Five: Leon Redbone (Rhino, 2007)

• Live & Kickin' (Purple Pyramid / Cleopatra, 1981)
• Leon Redbone Live (Green Stone Records, 1985)
• Live! (truncated version of 1985 release) (Pair, 1991)
• Live – October 26, 1992: The Olympia Theater, Paris, France (Rounder, 2005)[35]
• Strings & Jokes: Live in Bremen 1977 (MIG, 2018)