Leon Redbone

Leon Redbone has always been an extremely difficult artist to categorize. Describing Redbone as a folk singer is definitely valid -- folk is a major part of what he does -- but at the same time, Redbone's love affair with pre-World War II music also has a lot to do with blues, classic jazz, ragtime, vaudeville and traditional pop. Redbone is as eclectic as he is retro, and his love of privacy only adds to the guy's mystique -- apart from the notoriously media-shy Prince, you would be hard-pressed to find a more guarded, privacy-obsessed singer than Leon Redbone. The "how do we categorize Redbone" question certainly isn't answered by Live & Kickin', a collection of on-stage material that was probably recorded at the Lone Star Café in New York City around 1979-1981; Master Classics/Cleopatra was unable to confirm an exact recording date. Whatever the recording date(s), Redbone is in generally fine form on these performances -- and in true Redbone fashion, the earthy vocalist/guitarist tackles an intriguing variety of songs. Redbone pays a lot of attention to the blues, warmly embracing classics like Big Bill Broonzy's "I Love My Whiskey" and Blind Blake's "Diddy Wa Diddie." But he also turns his attention to everything from Fats Waller's "I'm Crazy ‘Bout My Baby" and Jelly Roll Morton's "Someday Sweetheart" to the 19th century minstrel standard "Polly Wolly Doodle"--and through it all, Redbone maintains the rootsy, down-home, old-time charm that he is known for. No one will ever be able to say with 100 percent certainty exactly what musical genre Redbone falls into; arguably, he is a folk singer, bluesman, ragtime performer, pre-bop jazz vocalist, pre-rock popster, and a vaudevillian all rolled into one. But one can say with certainly that Live & Kickin' is a consistently rewarding and appealingly unpredictable document of Redbone on-stage. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi