Leon Redbone, R.I.P.

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Leon Redbone has passed away. He was 69 although his family indicates Redbone was 127.


Redbone wasn't 127, but his music could have been. He certainly looked and sounded like he was from another time. Much of the music he recorded was written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Somehow Redbone, shrouded behind dark glasses, a darker beard and a Panama Hat, found an audience for his interpretation of songs from the Tin Pin Alley and vaudeville era.


My Dad was among those fans. It was through him that I was exposed to Redbone the year our family on spent on sabbatical in Victoria, British Columbia. He had an eight track cassette of Redbone's 1975 debut album On the Track. It's cover had a picture of Michigan J. Frog about to be run over by a locomotive. That alone was worth the price of admission. Dad would play On the Track on our frequent drives up around the city and into the Interior. His voice was the deepest and most nasally I've heard. Needless to say, if you've Leon Redbone's voice once you'll never forget it.


My favorite track from On the Track was the Hoagy Carmichael-Johnny Mercer penned "Lazy Bones". R.I.P.