|
Leon's Sidemen and Friends |
Jonathan Dorn, Tuba |
"Doing SNL four times was a wonderful
experience. Twice just the two of us and twice with other players
and it did a lot for my career. Touring was tough, a
different town, city and sometimes country every day and
night. Bones was difficult to travel with, lots of
rules. Musically it was amazing and I got to play with
Bobby Gordon, Scott Black, Peter Ecklund, Vince Giordano
etc. The first two years were just Bones and I and we
did two European tours, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S.
and all of Canada, an amazing experience. Working
with Bones afforded me great friendships with John Prine,
Tom Waits, Leo Kotke, David Bromberg, Steve Goldman,
Bonnie Raitt and Jethro Burns. Not playing my own horn,
but being his main accompanist all those years was a
great experience. Jethrow Burns played with them. We had
great hangs after shows, also met tons of fans, most
good some very scary. Got to see many countries, great
clubs, bars, after hours clubs too, a real trip.
Musically, a wonderful experience. Getting to be very
close friends with George Carlin was a total blast. We
did two years sharing shows with him. We used to hang in
my room after shows, unreal conversations. A true
gentleman and a genius, I miss him".
Jonathan Dorn |
|
Leon Redbone and Richard Barnes |
"I was a Leon fan long before I was
a sporatic sideman. One night at a show I mentioned to
Leon and Beryl that I wanted to audition to play Dobro
with him Beryl said "Come to Reading, Pa
next Friday night". There was no audition-I was placed
on the stage along with John Gill and off we went- no
set list, no discussion or hint of what song was
next, just follow Leon's lead and play! Every night was
an adventure, stories, laughs, meeting new people,
seeing old friends".
Richard Barnes |
|
Fritz Raiser |
"I auditioned for Leon Redbone back
in 1984. No pressure, set up, do one song at the sound
check and if he liked you, you stayed and played the
show. If he didn't like you, pack it up and leave. No
practice, just play the show with Jonathan Dorn and Dr.
Jazz, Brian Bauer. The next night we played the
University of Buffalo. When I walked in the dressing
room, I could hear Leon, but didn't see his eminence
anywhere. Leon had locked himself in a dark closet,
because he did not want to hear the rock music over the
sound system. Leon was singing along with a tape of the
Hungarian gypsy virtuoso Imre Laszlo. The next night I
watched a SNL replay of Leon and Jonathan. Leon the
entertainer, was always spot on funny. So I played from
1984 until his second last show. Played dates over the
East Coast, Midwest and did some work on a California
tour. I had the absolute pleasure of working with
Jonathan Dorn, Scott Black, Kenny Peplowski, Brian
Bauer, Cindy Cashdollar, Tom Roberts, Dan Levinson,
Vince Giordano, Bobby Gordon, Terry Waldo, Paul Asaro
and many other great musicians".
Fritz Raiser |
|
Leon and Dan Levinson
Photo Courtesy of Tom Roberts |
"I was 24 when I did my first shows
with LR in 1990. I didn't know how to dress properly and
barely knew how to get around my clarinet, which I'd
only started playing a few years earlier. I performed
with him for the last time 25 years later, in 2015, not
long before he hung up his guitar for the last time.
During some of those years I was a regular member of his
touring "orchestra"- which usually included as many as
two people. At the end, I understood less about him than
the day I met him. We played, more or less, the same
songs at every show. And yet no two shows were alike. It
was never tedious, never pure repetition; every show was
unique in some way - and often in MANY ways. Things
seemed to invariably go awry. As desperately as I tried
to conceive and to follow a plan, based on what he'd
done at previous shows, I never could. Sometimes I'd
walk offstage with him after a show feeling as though
I'd made every possible mistake, and he'd say something
like, "You played really well. What happened?" Other
times - though rarely - I'd feel as though everything
"clicked", and as we came offstage he'd say, "Did you
have a stroke?" It took me years to realize he WANTED
things to go awry. That's what kept it fresh and
interesting for him - and for me, too. We never played a
concert: what we did was a vaudeville show. The music
was incidental. His fans understood that, consciously or
not, which is why he could spend ten minutes of the show
tuning his guitar, or spend two minutes taking a drink
from his glass, or merely raise a single eyebrow over
the top of his dark glasses - and nobody grew impatient.
It was entertainment - HIS KIND of entertainment. I can
honestly say I've never consistently had as much fun
performing as I did with him. In conversation, he was
fond of saying, "The mind is a terrible thing." Those
who knew him appreciated the irony. Those who didn't -
be they simple country folk greeting him at the end of a
show or clueless talk-show hosts - couldn't stop
themselves from adding, "to waste, I know." And he'd
raise an eyebrow."
Dan "Danley" Levinson |
|
George Needham |
"I not only went to the coffeehouse
gig at UB in 1972, Leon yelled at me there. I was
working a camera for the campus video group and he
didn't want us to record his set. So I turned off the
recorder but was practicing with the camera while he was
on. When he saw what I was doing he laid into me. I just
sat down and listened to the rest of the set, properly
chastened."
George Needham |
|
Josh Alan Friedman |
"I worked at Regent Sound Studios
NYC and was there during the recording of Leon's first
record. I would have set up an Electro-Voice RE-15
microphone or RE-16 on a small boom with a chair, in the
huge Studio A, Neumann 87 as well. Studio A was designed
for orchestras, but with a solo artist, like Don McLean
or Redbone, they'd do their basic track alone in the big
room. Maybe Jonathan Dorn, Joel's brother who produced
the record, recorded Tuba with Leon on the basic tracks.
I don't recall. Of course, Leon was seen as an eccentric
character. I couldn't tell whether it was a put-on, but
apparently he was really that character. His guitar
style was unique, I couldn't get a grasp on where it
came from at that time. Not quite ragtime or Blind Blake
or Chet Atkins, But some netherworld between those
styles."
Josh Alan Friedman |
|
Leon at Regent Sound |
|
Brian Bauer |
"I played clarinet, c-melody sax and
bass sax with Leon once or twice a year from 1973 until
one of his last concerts before he became unable to
perform. I miss him greatly. We both had a "punnish"
sense of humor together and I always enjoyed performing
with him. I am the clarinetist on the 1973 Buffalo
youtube video. This was his first big venue and it was
at the University of Buffalo in a large circus tent.
Also present was Bonnie Raitt and Maria Muldaur. U.B.,
my alma mater, used to hire me to back up various
singers with my clarinet. They introduced me to Leon
backstage and he told me he never played with
accompaniment and did not want a horn player. I said,
"Mr. Redbone, why don't you just play anything and see
how you like my playing." We played a song and he liked
it, so we went on stage together. I didn't know many of
his songs, but they were simple to accompany. You had to
listen carefully, as Leon would add or skip a bar or
beat. He improved on this over the years. Later in '73,
we played at Avery Fischer Hall in NY as opening act for
the late John Prine. We were congratulated afterwards by
Bette Midler and the legendary John Hammond Sr. who was
interested in my playing of the older style Albert
Clarinet, which all the early jazzmen played. That was
one of my greatest memories. Leon and I continued to
play at colleges and a local venue, The Tralfamadore
Cafe once or twice a year. He had a "cult" following in
Buffalo and I used to kid him that in a thousand years,
he would become a major religious figure. I would have
loved to go on the road with Leon, but the life of a
traveling musician is quite insecure and I chose
employment in chemistry/metals and later in research.
Leon's success is due to his wife, Beryl Handler, who in
1973, was on the university activities board. She
spotted his potential and eventually fell in love with
him. Beryl was always nice and treated me fairly. Hope
this commentary is of some help in filling in his early
years. Thanks for your website."
Brian Bauer |
|
Leon and Brian Bauer |
|
Scott Black |
L-R Jonathan Dorn, Scott Black, Eddy Davis, Leon, Bobby
Gordon |
|
"I have been
asked countless times to put on paper my recollections
about the years I spent on the road with Leon Redbone.
My logic has been..he's gone, what good would it do?
Back when his first album came out, my brother played it
for me as I never heard of him before. I didn't watch
TV, so was not aware of the cult following that was
quickly building due to the Saturday Night Live
appearances. As I looked at the musicians on the
recording, I realized that I knew almost all of them.
This was late 1977 and old pal Vince Giordano gave me
his phone number saying he is always looking for
musicians who could work with him. He had adopted some
of Jimmie Rodgers habits of dropping a beat and his
chords were kind of suspect, but it wasn't anything I
couldn't follow. In short his playing was a combination
of Blind Blake's guitar playing and Jelly Roll Morton's
vocals. There were other influences as well, to be sure
but this was at the basic level. We used to call each
other at least a couple of times a week until I started
touring with him in the fall of 1982. I was supposed to
have made my debut with him in NYC in 1980, but that was
cancelled due to John Lennon being shot and the club
didn't think it was a great idea, so they postponed it.
At the time I was living in Atlantic City and working my
ass off usually playing two casinos a day and making a
good deal of money. All of the casinos wanted a
Dixieland band but there were very few guys who really
knew the style and those who did were usually in the
house orchestras doing shows. When I did join him in
1982, his wife who ran everything paid me $125.00 a day.
Most venues did two shows a night but the pay was still
the same. Keep in mind that he was getting $10,000 for
one show and another $5,000 for a second show. He liked
to stay at a motel chain called Knights Inn back then
that cost a whopping $18.00 a night and you only had a
room to yourself every three days because his wife
refused to pay for an extra room! Shag rugs and a 20lb
crushed velvet bedspread. A couple times a year we would
go to Houston and play at a club that had been a bank at
the turn of the century called Rockefeller's. It was a
two story affair with the second story arranged so the
stage could be seen from all seats. The lights were
blazing and you couldn't really see anything beyond the
stage. After one rather rowdy number the second the
crowd became quiet for an instant, from the top floor
came a female voice that yelled out, "LEON! I WANT YOUR
BODY!" He looked up to the lights and said, "Why? Don't
you have one?" Surreal but funny. Another funny show was
at an Opera House built in the 1880's in a small town in
Vermont. He would usually go on stage first and do
perhaps one or two songs by himself then call on us to
join him. Well, he's up there by himself playing "Lazy
Bones" when a bat started buzzing him. When he performed
most of the time his eyes were closed behind the
sunglasses so he didn't see it. The crowd was laughing
and he had no idea why. We joined him and the bat was
still flying around us for almost the entire show. It
was funny when he did his shadow puppet routine and you
could see the bat in there too. Didn't really faze him
either. The best shows with him happened when either
Bobby Gordon or Ken Peplowski were there on clarinet.
Bobby Gordon played shear poetry whose phrasing I can't
begin to describe. Ken was the total opposite but could
fire us and the crowd up at will. There were quite a few
who did the job well, but none who could take it to
another level. One llast funny memory. One writer who
reviewed a show mentioned that Redbone has a voice like
a Bassett Hound being dropped down an elevator shaft.
That killed me! But then so did his response he gave on
a radio show we did together when the host asked him
what did he want to be when he was a child? His response
was...a cow. When people ask me what it was like to work
with Leon I generally tell them it was like the film
"Groundhog Day" without the happy ending. It was sad to
hear he passed away, but at least he finally escaped
being stuck with someone truly disliked. RIP."
Scott Black
|
|
Shadric Smith |
"In 1986 Leon released an album
called Red To Blue, coproduced with Beryl Handler and
featuring some great session players. My song Diamonds
Don't Mean A Thing was chosen as one of the cuts, and I was
thrilled. I had written the song in 1977
and recorded it for a small mid-western label in 1978,
but due to the pitfalls of the music business it had
never been released. Ever since she first heard it, a
friend named Denise Wiewel had been telling me it would
be a perfect vehicle for Leon Redbone. Then in 1984 on one of his
mid-western tours Leon played at the Maintenance Shop on
the Iowa State campus in Ames, Iowa. Denise and husband
Frank went to the gig and when Leon came off the stage
Denise handed him a cassette of the song and gave a
short pitch. We heard nothing for almost a year, then
one day in 1985 Leon called and said they had recorded
the song and wanted to use it on the album. When I
finally received a copy in 1986 I was amazed to see that
it was the first song on the record and the cover art
even reflected the mood of my song. Leon nailed it, of
course, and had some fine help from Vince Giordano on upright
bass, Giampaolo Biagi on drums, Mac Rebennack( Dr. John
) on piano, Steve Fishell on pedal steel, Eric Weissberg
on pedal steel and a Joe
Renzetti string arrangement. The credits also list three
violinists: Richard Hendrickson, Alvin E. Rogers and
Richard Maximoff. Leon's version has been
played around the world and has led to several more
covers of the tune by the talented Jever Mountain Boys
in 1994 and Billy Bratcher in 2011. Thank you Leon and
Beryl."
Shadric Smith |
|
John Gill |
|
My Years with Leon Redbone. John Gill December 2020
"I was born in new York City in 1951. By the time I was about 15
years old I was an aspiring musician. I started on drums in 1963
and added plectrum banjo by around 1965. I involved myself in
the traditional jazz community as much as a 15 year old could
and by 1968 I started playing jobs with the older established
traditional jazz and dixieland musicians. In 1977 I was offered
the banjo chair with the Turk Murphy Jazz Band and moved to San
Francisco to play full time. In 1978 I got a call from a
musician friend of mine, Eddy Davis, who was in town playing
dates with someone named Leon Redbone and I was invited to come
and hear the group and possibly sit in. At that time Leon was
touring with Tom Waits. It was a great show and I thoroughly
enjoyed the performance. Leon was funny, good with the crowd and
sang very well. His guitar playing was very interesting, it was
sort of his take on thumb picking plus one or two fingers and
all done in a rugged ragtime style. He also had his guitar tuned
down to Bb. Leon was always Leon. He dressed in a somewhat
vintage style, always wore a hat and sunglasses, and frequently
carried a book or two. He had a deep lazy voice that spoke in a
somewhat relaxed southern accent and his fans loved him. They
were affectionately called "Boneheads". He was a big Jelly Roll
Morton fan and enjoyed the singing of a wide variety of singers
like Johnny Marvin, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Rodgers and even Elvis
Presley. His favorite though was Emmett Miller. He liked several
guitarists, Blind Boy Fuller, Eddie Lang and Blind Blake come to
mind. He also liked the sound of a cornet and while he didn't
play one he enjoyed the playing of Nick LaRocca, Freddie Keppard
and King Oliver. He played very good harmonica but played it
very rarely during my time. He could play it tenderly or give
out with a rousing march and I was treated to many impromptu
harmonica concerts while touring around the country. He also
loved classical music and opera. He was smart and well read and
pretty opinionated in a quiet sort of way. Even though he was
only two years older than me he seemed much older. He would come
out to California once or twice a year and he would always call
and invite me to the show and encourage me to sit in. Usually on
bass saxophone or banjo. So I slowly got to know him and his
wife Beryl and we got along pretty well. Around 1985 Beryl asked
me if I would be interested in joining the group full time and I
accepted. It was considerably more money than I was earning as a
member of the Turk Murphy Jazz Band but I was a full time
musician so I felt that I was making the right choice. So I
moved back to New York and went to work for Leon and Beryl. My
duties being bass saxophone, banjo, snare drum and occasional
clarinet. I was also made the un-official music director and
helped with arrangements and finding new/vintage material. Leon
had become more interested in country/western music and I got to
be involved in the making of the Leon country album "No
Regrets". We recorded in Nashville with some excellent studio
musicians. The other album I did was "Christmas Island" which we
recorded in New York. I also got to help create some comedy
material with Leon where I would play the empty headed fool in
the style of Stan Laurel to Leon's stern boss/master of
ceremonies persona. That was a lot of fun. The band was always
good but for me the high points came when we were graced with
the beautifully sentimental clarinet of the great Bobby Gordon.
His clarinet was the perfect foil to Leon's voice. Their
performances of old tunes like "Melancholy Baby" and "Think of
Me Thinking of You" were beautiful to hear. I continued to work
with Leon on and off into the mid 1990's and then one day I got
an ominous call from Beryl who asked me, "what did you do? Leon
is furious." and hung up. To this day I have no idea what it is
I did, but it must have been bad because I never heard from
either of them again. It was sad when Leon passed away but I
have a lot of good memories and I'll continue to hang on to
them. He was for sure one of a kind".
John Gill |
Leon and Denny Osburn |
"When Leon called me, I was living
in a south suburb, Cleveland, MO. We played Kansas City
together then St. Louis. Those gigs were with Arnie
Kinsella and Cindy Cashdollar. Then I came home and
didn't expect to hear from him again. Then about a month
later he called and asked if I wanted to go play in
Florida over the New Years holidays. So he flew me down
there and I was picked up at the airport. It was just me
and Cindy in Florida, as Arnie was playing for Prairie
Home Companion and needed to get back to work. I do
remember Jake West was Leon's road manager and driver.
Jake was a hefty guy, about 450 lbs, and Jake loved
Jaegermeister. Leon doesn't fly but drives everywhere.
We were supposed to cross the state of Florida for a
show and Jake was up so late the night before he was
falling asleep at the wheel, so Leon made him pull over
and took over the driving. I think it was Lauderdale and
we saw Dion backstage. I didn't meet him but Leon talked
to him. The hardest part of my Leon Redbone gig was
INTERRUPTING him in the middle of a song. It was part of
the schtick or the joke but I just had trouble cutting
off Leon Redbone in the middle of singing a verse. Leon
was always nice to me. Interestingly, we were back stage
just talking about things like his cats and he said
"This is my last year to tour. After that I'm going home
to my pets and relax." I felt a little honored to be
part of his "farewell tour band" initially, but I kept
seeing him appear on shows and hearing his new records
and seeing that he had never retired at all. He ended up
working another 25+ years!"
Click on this link for a phone call from Leon to Denny.
https://soundcloud.com/denny-osburn/leon-redbone-rip
Denny Osburn |
|
Cindy Cashdollar |
|
Remembering Leon
Cindy Cashdollar January 2021
"I was a fan of Leon's and living in my hometown of
Woodstock, NY in the late '80's when I heard that he "might" be
looking for a Dobra player. Jump! A few phone calls led me to
Leon's great music director and multi-instrumentalist sideman
John Gill, with instructions to come to their sound check and
"play a little" before their show at The Turning Point in West
Nyack, NY. What a great band. In addition to John, there was
Scott Black on trumpet and Big Johnny Thomassie on drums. After
sound check, Leon invited me to play the show, and that same
evening extended into five years of touring and recording with
him. Leon certainly had his idiosyncrasies, but no more so than
most of the artists I've worked with at this point in my career.
He admired, had reverence for and immersed himself in a bygone
era that, in my opinion, simply made more sense to him. People
often ask "Did he always act like that?" and "Did he dress the
same off stage?" and the answer is pretty much yes. He still
wore suits on days off (white or seersucker in the summer), but
not the tie. Whenever I was a guest in his home, I never saw him
in a pair of jeans, but more casual than a suit. He just took
pride in dressing well. While in Europe I recall him watching
people on the streets, saying "You can always tell the American
tourists and that damn "Fanny Pack" is the degradation of men's
civilized fashion". I laughed so hard, it was true and although
I know they're practical, I've never looked at a fanny pack the
same way again. He had a great sense of humor and made me laugh
often and loud, especially his observations of people. He LOVED
food and was a great cook, I still make roasted red peppers from
his recipe. He was also smart about food. The "deli trays" in
our dressing rooms every night consisted of the same 4 things:
Pita bread, pepperoni, swiss cheese and mustard. After 3 years
of it I finally asked him why it never changed and he said
"Because it's unlikely that we'll get food poisoning from any of
it". Made sense, although at the time I wasn't a true believer
until I got a severe case of food poisoning from some bad
late-night backstage food (we didn't have our usual deli tray)
when we were touring France. I was very ill the next morning, a
doctor was called to the hotel, a prescription was delivered,
but as the hours wore on I was too sick to keep the medicine
down. We had to drive on to the next town for a show that night
and since Leon was a big proponent of "the show must go on",
there was no way I could take the night off. Another doctor was
summoned when we arrived and gave me a shot that he promised
would "make me a little drowsy but you'll make it through the
show without getting sick" and he was right, although I don't
remember anything about the show, still have no idea what was in
the injection or how I played. Just as well. I learned a lot
musically from Leon, and through him I discovered artists like
Emmett Miller and Lonnie Johnson. I've kept the cassette that
Leon made for me of Lonnie Johnson tunes, complete with his
impeccable handwritten song titles and "doodling" - he was a
great artist, evident on some of his album covers. He was
obsessed with the mysterious and elusive Emmett Miller (a
Georgia-born minstrel show performer and writer of, amongst
others, "Lovesick Blues") and spent countless years trying to
track down any of his remaining relatives and information, which
I think he ended up being pretty successful with. If we were
touring down south, sometimes Scott Black and myself would be
recruited to accompany Leon to the public library and join in on
the research. Or travel along a route that Emmett may have
followed while touring. He taught me to appreciate playing a
simple melody, the beauty in simplicity, that sometimes it was
all that a song needed. In my five years with him he only
admonished my playing once. He never missed anything. I can't
remember the song, but the conversation after the show was:
Leon:"Ms Cashdollar! What were you doing on the second chorus
of__________?" Me: "I added a 6th note to the IV chord". Him:
"Why on earth would you do that?" Me: "I just thought it'd make
it more interesting". Him: "Well let's not have that again. It's
interesting enough". He was a great guitar player and I wish he
was more recognized for that. All in all, a very one of a kind
but brilliant man, a renaissance man, not the easiest to work
for but not the hardest either. He certainly introduced a lot of
people to music that was historically right in their own
backyard, but probably never would've paid any attention to it
if not for him. It's a crime that anyone has to be struck by
Alzheimer's, but when I heard that he was yet another victim, my
heart sunk. I'm glad he got to accomplish and experience all
that he did and was happy to have been a part of it. RIP Leon
(and may there be no fanny packs where you are).
Cindy Cashdollar
www.cindycashdollar.com
|
Leon and Phelyx Hopkins |
Phelyx Hopkins Poster |
|
"Backstage, before our show (I believe this was my fifth
appearance opening for him), I popped into Leon's dressing room
with the gift of a bottle of Irish Whiskey and he insisted that
we share a bit right then. Within the very moment that he spent
in getting us a couple of drinking glasses I remember thinking
to myself that having a whiskey with Leon Redbone should have
always been on my bucket list and it was both mentally added and
checked-off as Leon raised his glass to mine, locked eyes with
me through his tinted spectacles, and said, Chin Chin! I managed
to earn the distinction of "Approved Support Act" for Leon's
concerts. The first concert was arranged by a local-to-me venue,
a market wherein I have achieved some form of notoriety.
Honestly, I believe that Beryl had simply seen my name in emails
enough times that some trust had been established and it was no
longer necessary to get more than one person to sign off on my
appearances before the magic Redbone was about to deliver. I
remember some discussion about joining a tour, but that idea
simply came too late. One memorable concert (May 6, 2010) was at
the prestigious venue in Aspen called, Belly Up! There were two
posters created by an artist called Scrojo for this event, one
of which has become a rather special one and you can even still
buy an archival copy here:
www.dking-gallery.com/store/SCRG_Redbone_1005.html . The
other (much larger) poster created, by the same artist for that
event, of which only one print was made, was given to me by the
venue and I did have Leon sign it for me. This Colorado Mountain
venue had dressing rooms that came standard with oxygen tanks
for the high potential of altitude sickness. It was a chilly
night but the crowd was truly enrapt. I performed my set and
Leon took the intimate stage with only a piano accompaniment.
That was plenty to deliver an experience that would have been a
ticket-buyer-bargain at thrice the price. At the show's
conclusion, I saw two folks trying to sneak into the green room.
I wasn't the only witness and they were quickly apprehended, but
Leon poked his head out and insisted that he sign the acoustic
guitar they somehow smuggled in. I think they would have been
just a bit more satisfied had they managed to get away with
something like a pair of sneaky burglars, but Leon did
generously make their caper pay off. I know that Leon's tech
rider called for a single table lamp for stage lighting. I was
never able to read that rider, but that's how it was and I have
to say that I learned a great deal from the overall
psychological design of that. Avoiding any potentially boring
details here, let me also state that I have since always had a
table lamp on my stages out of gratitude for those few
experiences and the lessons I sussed out of what a lot of the
techs regarded as eccentric nonsense. He never did or said
anything that he intended to be received like it was from a
prophet or sage, he was just there with his wisdom and
experience, take it or leave it. A bright person would analyze
just a bit and take home a real treasure. As another aside, I am
fairly skilled with design and prop-making so I created a few
"telegrams" for Leon to use during those warm, artful and iconic
"bits" in his shows wherein he would share what he was reading
from a "telegram" he had just received before the show. I never
actually shared those props with him because it was too easy to
imagine hearing him dismissingly say, what would I need these
for, Professor? Another memorable backstage interaction (Friday,
April 15th, 2011) was between Leon and the talent-booker for the
venue, David. David confidently stated that he was going to
"bring a stack of posters upstairs and be right back". Well,
this triggered Mr. Redbone's propensities to insist on the
proper use of our language and, well...Leon let him have it. I
was treated to witnessing an interaction between Mr. Redbone and
someone who was all-too-used to cock-strutting. "Bring was a
word improperly employed and cock-of-the-walk was being reduced
to apologetic promises to treat a language with more thoughtful
respect. I hadn't needed more reason to continue polishing the
pedestal under whom I had placed Master Redbone, but that
satisfying snicker sure cinched it". "Chin Chin, my friends!
Chin Chin".
Phelyx Hopkins
www.phelyx.com |
Leon and Tom Roberts |
"One of the frequent stops of the
east coast was The Ram's Head Tavern in Annapolis, which
for a while was my home town and was the home of my
murderous 2nd ex-wife but more on that in another
installment and what Leon did afterwards. It was
relatively close to New Hope where the Redbone family
lived, so the entire family came down to see the show,
enjoy the sights and probably feast on crabs. It was our
typical show and afterwards in the dressing room
everyone was visiting and Leon's youngest daughter
Ashley said: "Dad. I have a suggestion".
Leon: "What's that Ashley bear?"
Ashley: "Why don't you learn the words to some of the
songs you were singing?"
Leon: "Ashley bear I can't do that! That's the act?"
Check out the following link;
Leon Redbone: A Remembrance and Appreciation-Tom Roberts
https://www.tomrobertspiano.com/news/2019/7/9/leon-redbone-a-remembrance-and-appreciation?fbclid=lwAR1iqbj6zNr1E1FkCEsarSbsY_sCsdos6286slephfwB70WaA-nK_mB4XU
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David Barrett |
David Barrett |
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MEETING LEON REDBONE
"I first met Leon Redbone in 1968. I was in High School and I
was 16 years old at the time. I grew up in Scarborough, which is
a suburb in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I had been talking to a
girl in class one day and we had started to talk about Folk
Music and Coffee Houses and I had mentioned how I would like to
maybe try performing in this field of endeavour one day. She
told me about an underground Coffee House that was downtown in
the bottom of a church every Wednesday night. She had been there
many times, so we went down there together so I could check it
out. It was in the bottom of the Bloor United Church and it cost
$1.00 to get in. The coffee house was called "Fat Albert's". As
we came down the stairs, she said she wanted to introduce me to
this person who was standing there with a coffee in one hand and
a small cigar in the other..She explained to me quietly that he
was a little eccentric but was a very good performer. He wore a
woolen Tam on his head, Dark Sunglasses, a dark vest and white
shirt and he sported a bushy moustache. She said, "Dave, I want
to introduce you to Leon Redbone". I remember thinking to
myself, what a cool name. Leon held out his hand and said "Howdie
do" in a bit of a mumble. I was told he usually went on at the
end of the night, so I waited until he went on, I was very
intrigued. When he got on stage he made a small production of
dusting off the seat of his chair with a bandana, adjusted the
mike to his liking and said, "This is in the Key of C" and
proceeded to play a Jimmie Rogers tune, "Waiting For A Train" I
was hooked, I knew I had to hear more. He played two other
songs, one being "The Piano Roll Blues, and Don't You Leave
Here" All I can say was, it was Magic! After that I would go
down there every Wednesday and perform myself and most times
Leon would be there, drinking his coffee and smoking his cigar.
Leon was always quiet but would engage in conversation quite
freely about numerous subjects, but mostly music. Leon would go
on binges and play nothing but Jimmie Rogers and then nothing
but Blind Gary Davis, Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller. He also
played Big Bill Broonzy and Woody Guthrie. He also would play
some of the old standards from the 20's and 30's, also some
Ragtime but not much. Many times we'd sit in the tuneup room and
Leon would show me different ways of playing chords to get a
much greater effect in a song. Leon was also a very good Blues
Harp player, Graphic Artist and Photographer. He used to do a
few gigs with another fellow, his name was Ed Brown (aka: Bo
Basiac). They played a lot of Leadbelly songs and other Blues as
well. They would perform at different Coffee Houses around town,
The Whistle Stop, Fiddlers Green and Grumbles to name a few. I
found out about this time that Leon had gone by some other
names. He was known as Sonny at the pool hall where he shot
pool, he was an excellent pool player. He tried to hustle me a
couple of times but I wouldn't bite. Then he was known as Mr.
Bone, then Leon and eventually Leon Redbone. Rumours would
travel around about Leon, most of which I didn't care about but
it was hard not to hear about them. One was that he was Bob
Dylan's brother, largely due to the fact that when Dylan had his
motorcycle accident Leon disappeared and wasn't seen again until
Dylan was seen somewhere. It was then that Leon reappeared back
in Toronto again without a word of where he'd been. Another one
was he was related to Howard Hughes. He would sit in the Coffee
House and when he knew people were watching he would pull out an
old photograph of Howard Hughes and say to himself that he had
to go visit Uncle Howie. Then he wouldn't be seen again for some
time. Leon's performances were always a treat, his playing was
always impeccable and his timing was dead on. One night he was
the featured performer and when he went on stage he brought two
chairs, which was unusual since he always played solo. He made a
big production of dusting off the chairs and adjusting the mikes
just right. Then he quietly sat down and pulled a bandana out of
his pocket and carefully spread it out on the chair and gently
pulled a tomato out of his pocket and miked it and said, "Are
you ready?" and proceeded to play. Everyone was chuckling and
then he asked the tomato to "Take It!!" all to uproarious
laughter. It was a wonderful night indeed!!"
David Barrett |
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