When Leon Redbone showed up on the music scene in the early 1970’s, no one knew quite what to make of him. Bob Dylan said he could be anywhere from 25-70 and that if he started a label he would certainly sign him.
Redbone, who was born in Cyprus before ultimately moving to Canada with his family, was a first-rate musical eccentric. He not only specialized in songs from not long before or after the turn of the 20th century, he dressed the part and never publicly left character.
He loved songs from the
Tin Pan Alley era and did extensive research on the artists he covered, but what he did with those songs was purely his own genius.
He had two instruments that were world class: he was a brilliant guitarist and a superb vocalist. He could finger pick old songs like Diddy Wa Diddy, Champagne Charley, Ain’t Misbehaving or here, Walking Stick. It’s a bit harder to hear some of his genius on stage, but you get a fair amount on this video.
Not only did he sing well but he had a rare talent for throat trumpet, which was somewhat unexpected from a man with a fairly deep voice. He knew how to use it to play with a song. As Rolling Stone once said of him, “so authentic you can hear the surface noise of an old 78 rpm.”
His love of that era shines through in his music and no one else could possibly do what he did. The man was a brilliant musician. Sadly, he passed away in 2019 at 69.
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