LEON REDBONE (1949-2019) performing on The Tonight Show, with his National 💫
Redbone was elusive about his origins, and never explained the origin of his stage name. According to a Toronto Star report in the 1980s, he was once known as Dickran Gobalian, and he came to Canada from Cyprus in the mid-1960s and changed his name via the Ontario Change of Name Act. Biographical research published in 2019 corroborated his birth name, and stated that his family was of Armenian origin. His parents lived in Jerusalem, but fled in 1948 to Nicosia, Cyprus, where Redbone was born. By 1961, the family had moved to London, England, and by 1965 to Toronto.
While living in Canada in the late 1960s, 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, leading that magazine to do a feature article on Redbone a year before he had a recording contract. The article described his performances as "so authentic you can hear the surface noise of an old 78." Dylan said that if he had ever started a label, he would have signed Redbone. His first album, On the Track, was released by Warner Bros. Records in 1975.
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. 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.
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. In an interview printed in the Winter 2017 edition 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." 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. With his reluctance to discuss his past came speculation that "Leon Redbone" was an alternative identity for another performer. Two common suggestions in years past were Andy Kaufman and Frank Zappa, 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". In a 1991 interview, he said: "The only thing that interests me is history, reviewing the past and making something out of it."
Redbone survived a small plane crash in Clarksburg, West Virginia, on February 12, 1979. 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."
On May 19, 2015 on his website, his publicist referred to concerns about his health and announced his retirement from performing and recording.
Redbone died on May 30, 2019, following complications from dementia. At the time of his death he was living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in hospice care. He is survived by his wife Beryl Handler, daughters Blake and Ashley, and three grandchildren.
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." His longtime publicist Jim Della Croce confirmed that his age was, in fact, 69.
One of Redbone's songs, "Seduced", was featured prominently in the 1978 film The Big Fix. Redbone sang "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Zooey Deschanel over the closing credits of the 2003 film Elf and provided the voice for Leon the Snowman in the film. On his 1987 album Christmas Island he performed "Frosty the Snowman" with Dr. John. He performed the theme song for the TV shows Mr. Belvedere and Harry and the Hendersons.
Redbone appeared regularly on the PBS children's show Between the Lions. On Sesame Street, Redbone sang several songs over film footage, including "Blueberry Mouth", "Have You Ever", and "What Do They Do When They Go Wherever They Go?" He also appeared as Leon in the 1988 film Candy Mountain, and on an episode of the TV show Life Goes On. He narrated the 2011 Emmy Award-winning documentary Remembering the Scranton Sirens, celebrating the exceptional, yet little-known, musical legacy of one of the most significant "territory" dance bands in American musical history.
Redbone performed in several TV commercials, including Budweiser beer, in which he lay on a surfboard singing "This Bud's for You", the U.S. automobile brand Chevrolet, All laundry detergent, and InterCity British Rail service in which he sang the song "Relax". He also lent his voice to an animated caricature of himself in a commercial for Ken-L Ration dog food.
Redbone is the subject of the 2018 short documentary film Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone, by Mako Funasaka, Liam Romalis and Jason Charters, produced by Riddle Films.
WORLD'S #1 SOURCE of new Nationals: www.catfishkeith.com/national-guitars/
Photo thanks to Billy Bratcher. Bio thanks to Wikipedia.
Vox AC30 guitar amplifiers being assembled at the JMI Dartford factory, Kent, UK. 1967.
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What is solastalgia?
The term solastalgia, a combination of the Latin word solacium (comfort) and the Greek root –algia (pain), is a neologism coined in 2003 by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht and indicates the feeling of nostalgia that one feels for a place despite continuing to reside there. This particular emotional state manifests itself when one’s environment is altered by sudden changes beyond one’s control. “It’s a type of homesickness or melancholy that you feel when you’re at home and your familiar environment is changing around you in ways that you feel are profoundly negative,” explained Albrecht, who coined the term to describe the damaging effects that the coal mining boom had on the inhabitants of the Upper Hunter Valley in Australia.
Val Shively is a legendary figure among record collectors. He owns more than 5 million records. He has a store called R&B Records in a rough neighborhood beyond West Philly. The building leans like the Leaning Tower of Pisa because there are five million records inside. It's probably the biggest record store in the world and collectors fly from all over the world to buy from Val. But if they say something wrong or don't like their attitude, he kicks them out of the store.
He's a man who went crazy for music at a young age. He's the most authoritative collector of doo-wop records on the planet and one of the greatest record collectors of all time, even though his genre is narrow.
One day in 1960 Shively turned the dial on his transistor radio all the way to the right and tuned in a black radio station for the first time. "I was shocked to hear Etta James, Baby Washington, 'Valerie' by Jackie & the Starlites," he said. “I like a lot of white music, I love old country, but to me, black music has more power, more originality, and more longevity. And once I got into black harmony bands, that was it. Nothing else has ever sounded so good to me.”
A sign on the door of his shop says “Do Not Enter” and in small print “Unless You Know What You Want!” Another sign says, “New Rules. 5 Minutes and You’re Out.” Val doesn’t allow snooping. Most of his business is mail order, and if you come as a customer, you have to have a list of what you want. And if you haggle over prices, complain that he doesn’t have something, or act even a little rudely, you’re out the door.
There, among an estimated five million vinyl records, on a small island of space, sitting at an old desk filled with Rolodexes, 45s, crumpled junk, and random novelty items, sits the white-haired emperor of this extraordinary domain.
Matt Barton, curator of recorded sound at the Library of Congress, has expressed keen interest in seeing the collection, and Shively is eager to catalog and price the records in preparation for Barton’s possible visit later this year. “I’ve never had kids because my records are my kids. It’ll be nice to sit down and get to know them all again.”
For Italian friends, only: no! It’s not a turntable made in Genoa 😂😏😉😂
It’s a French-made professional/broadcast turntable 🥇
Announced for November on our sister label Strawberry, Davy Graham: He Moved Through The Fair - The Complete 1960s Recordings. 8CDs housed in a beautiful clamshell box, bringing together all his 1960s studio recordings plus demo and live recordings. Includes extensive sleeve note essay, original liner notes and a rare 2000 interview with Davy Graham. 👉 cherryred.co/DavyGraham
The cover of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" - The album features a picture of Dylan with his girlfriend at the time, Suze Rotolo. It was taken in February 1963 by CBS photographer Don Hunstein as Dylan and Suze walked down Jones Street in the West Village in New York City. The photo is one of those cultural markers that influenced the appearance of the covers, precisely because of their spontaneity and casual sensitivity. Most albums had a design inspired by Blue Note's jazz records, but this kind of poised and clean look didn't go well with folk music. Whoever was responsible for choosing that photo for "The Freewheelin" was really on to something new.
John Lee Hooker with the 'Muddywood' guitar, made from wood from Muddy Waters' childhood home.
Billy Gibbons: “I had phoned Jim O’Neil, founder of Living Blues magazine – he now lives in Mississippi – and accompanied him to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale. It so happened that Sid Graves, the director, said he was making a trip to Stovall Farms, where Muddy Waters was raised, to inspect the cabin that was in danger of being taken down upon request of the Highway Department for safety reasons. The cabin had been hit by a tornado and they figured, well, it might fall down.
“As we were looking about, the director picked up a piece of scrap lumber and said, `Why don’t you take a souvenir, here.’ There was quite a large beam left over, and we loaded it into the car.
“I drove back to Memphis and I was speaking with Rick Rayburn and Rick Hancock, the proprietors of the Pyramid Guitar Co., and mentioned having this piece of wood. I said, why don’t we make a guitar out of it? They said sure, let’s have a look.
“I unloaded it and left it with them, and two weeks later they called and said they had a couple of things in mind, why don’t I stop by?
“I drove back, spent about 20 minutes doing the design. It was humble beginnings for what really is an offering to the Delta Blues Museum. The guitar can be a focal point for modern blues musicians to pay homage to the museum, which has been doing a fine job of preserving this art form we now know as American music.”
What kind of wood was this?
“It was a piece of cypress wood that was apparently part of the roof. It was a difficult piece of wood to work with. It was filled with knotholes and nails. In fact, there are actually two instruments from this effort – the first being kind of the test piece, the experimental piece, and the final, finished piece being the one presented to the museum. I kept the first one, which I’ll probably end up using on tour. The second piece is the one presented to the museum and leased to the Hard Rock.”
What factors did you take into account in the design? Did Muddy play a similar guitar?
“Yes, in the beginning I said let’s try to keep this design aesthetic as an instrument that would be usable as we might expect from Muddy Waters. And as we got near to the completion of the project, the decision was made to make it a donation to the museum. Rather that paint the instrument blue, we decided against that because it was just too corny. The Mississippi River paint scheme was applied to the instrument as a symbol of the power of what the river has come to be known and interpreted as. Certainly, it was the Mississippi River that gave the initial rise to the Delta, which of course became the fertile ground for the invention of the blues.
“The museum guitar is really the `player.’ There was just something about it upon completion. It not only sounded great, but it played like melted butter.”
Photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images
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