Leon Redbone Biography
26 August 1949. Believed to have been born in Canada, this enigmatic, gravelly voiced singer (‘I am a performer, but only in the metaphysical sense’) resolutely declines to divulge his origins. He was first heard of in Toronto during the early 70s, and achieved some popularity on the US television show Saturday Night Live. Even then he maintained an air of strict privacy, so much so that the contact number he gave to the legendary producer John Hammond Jnr. turned out to be a ‘Dial-A-Joke’ line. With his trademark fedora, dark glasses, and Groucho Marx moustache, Redbone celebrates a pre-World War II era of ragtime, jazz, blues, and minstrel shows, resurrecting the work of his heroes, who include Jelly Roll Morton, Lonnie Johnson, Joe Venuti, the young Bing Crosby, and vaudeville performer Emmett Miller. Jazz violinist Venuti was featured on Redbone’s On The Track in 1976, along with Don McLean, who played the banjo. The album is said to have sold more than 100, 000 copies, and his next release, Double Time, made the US Top 40.
Redbone is joined by well-known musical personalities on most of his albums, and for 1994’s Whistling In The Wind, he duetted with Merle Haggard
on ‘Settin’ By The Fire’ and Ringo Starr on ‘My Little Grass Shack’. Joe Venuti was present too, and the other tracks on this varied and entertaining set included ‘Bouquet Of Roses’, ‘Love Letters In The Sand’, and ‘I’m Crazy ’Bout My Baby’. Redbone’s distinctive baritone became familiar to UK television viewers in the late 80s/early 90s when he sang ‘Relax’, ‘Sleepy Time’, and ‘Untwist Again’ in a series of commercials with nostalgic themes for British Rail’s Inter-City service.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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