“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.”
~ Norman Maclean
https://youtu.be/_xRlojtDdEs?list=RD_xRlojtDdEs
Bob Dylan – Watching the River Flow
I only discovered recently that Leon once sang with Ringo….
https://youtu.be/u7wu1TTwaAE
Leon Redbone Performs “My Little Grass Shack” Written By: Johnny Noble, Bill Cogswell & Tommy Harrison Leon Redbone: Vocals Ringo Starr: Vocals Giampaolo Biagi: Drums Cyndi Cashdollar: Dobro Vince Giordano: Bass Frank Vignola: Guitar & Mandolin Terry Waldo: Piano
Backing Vocals By The Islanders: Beryl, Cyndi, Doug, Ira & Mitch From The Album: Whistling In The Wind https://youtu.be/5UvhqWrbNOg?list=PL1B0B7804FE039EB6
Here is the whole album cobbled together…
https://youtu.be/0HyrCKf_vks
Leon Redbone- LIVE Raw recording at Island Park New Jersey FULL SHOW Leon Redbone’s Full Live Performance at Duke Island Park in Bridgewater New Jersey. Filmed by David Beyer On July 14th 2001. Band members are Jon Erik Kelso, Dan Levinson & Vince Giordano.
Set List:
1.) Ghost Of The St. Louis Blues 0:01
2.) My Blue Heaven 3:23
3.) Steal Away Blues 7:06
4.) When Dixie Stars Are Playing Peek-A-Boo 10:39
5.) 14:36 ?
6.) Whistling Solo part 18:50
7.) I’m Going Home 21:13
8.) If You Knew 25:02
9.) Where Shall I Be 28:37
10.) Interlude/Solo 32:39
11.) Whistling Solo (Repeat) 35:50
12.) I’m Going Home 38:18 (Repeat)
13.) If You Knew How I Love You 41:44
14.) Where Shall I Be 44:09
15.) A Man Like me 47:45
16.) She’s My Gal 50:44
17.) I Ain’t Got Nobody 53:34
18.) Polly Wolly Doodle 57:30
19.) Improvisation 1:01:50
20.) Polka 1:02:40
21.) Diidy Wah Diddy 1:04:14
Leon Redbone (born Dickran Gobalian; August 26, 1949 – May 30, 2019)
was a singer-songwriter and musician. He was recognized by his hat, dark sunglasses and black tie. Leon was born in Cyprus of Armenian ancestry and first appeared on stage in Toronto, Canada, in the early 1970s. He also appeared on film and television in acting and voice-over roles.
In concert, Redbone favored music of the Tin Pan Alley era, circa 1890–1910. He sang the theme to the 1980s television series Mr. Belvedere, and released 18 albums.
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 came to Canada 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 confirmed that his family was of Armenian origin. His parents lived in Jerusalem, but fled in 1948 for 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 rpm].” Dylan said that if he had ever started a label, he would have signed Redbone. Redbone’s 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 he 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 in the Winter 2017 edition (No. 177) 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 and 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 almost exclusively played music from decades before the rock era, occasionally writing his own new material in a similar blues-influenced Tin Pan Alley style. (As well, Redbone’s only Billboard chart hit, “Seduced”, was a newly-written tune by Gary Tigerman arranged in Redbone’s decades-old style.) Redbone disdained “blatant sound for people to dance to”, and 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 thereafter 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, from the effects of dementia. At the time he was living in New Hope, Pennsylvania, in hospice care. He was 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 30, 2019, Leon Redbone crossed the delta for that beautiful shore at the age of 127. He departed our world with his guitar, his trusty companion Rover, and a simple tip of his hat.” His longtime publicist Jim Della Croce confirmed that Redbone was actually 69 when he passed.
See the complete article at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Redbone
https://youtu.be/cxNw1WAEvTE?list=RDcxNw1WAEvTE
Musician, songwriter, arranger, producer (1949-2019)
Born August 26, 1949, Nicosia, British Cyprus
Leon Redbone performing “My Walking Stick” live at the 1973 Buffalo Folk Festival.
LONG WAY FROM HOME collects 18 tracks, the first eight of which are from a live performance at the end of 1972 at the University of Buffalo’s coffee house. Dave Benders recorded the remaining 10 songs for a 1972 radio session for the University’s WBFO. The compilation – comprising typically distinctive Redbone renditions of Tin Pan Alley and ragtime favorites – marks the first ever official release of these important early recordings, a milestone in the enigmatic singer-guitarist’s idiosyncratic creative development.
ON THE TRACK is among the most remarkable debut albums of 1975 or any other year, a reverent and remarkably authentic revival of late 19th century and early 20th century popular music, spanning Roaring Twenties radio ditties, Depression-era ragtime, the folk-jazz of World War II, and still-sung favorites by songwriters like Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael & Johnny Mercer, Fats Waller, Al Dubin & Harry Warren, Lonnie Johnson, and Jimmie Rodgers. The album – which sees Redbone accompanied by such studio luminaries as drummer Steve Gadd, percussionist Ralph MacDonald, and the great double bassist Milt Hinton – was an across-the-board success, reaching #83 on Billboard’s overall “Top LPs & Tape” chart amidst widespread critical acclaim. TMR’s exclusive vinyl reissue of ON THE TRACK comes in a 12″ single pocket, direct-to-board replica of the original Warner Bros. Records release, with classic cover art featuring a Chuck Jones illustration of Merrie Melodies star Michigan J. Frog.
https://youtu.be/CNiM6HgwXPg
Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone (Leon Redbone Documentary)
https://youtu.be/_8mhCP0KWnY?list=RD_8mhCP0KWnY
Leon Redbone- Wanna Go Back Again Blues
One of many sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Redbone
Please Donate to help keep these Resources Online!
https://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/donate
Thanks for supporting Alternative Media and Education
Contact Tim with questions
Please support Alternative Media and Education
http://www.RevolutionResource.org
http://www.ThePeaceresource.com
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org
and other real news resources…
Together we make a difference.
Thanks for all you do.
Join the Revolution!
Please Donate for Literacy and to keep this resource.