LEON REDBONE,
1949-2019

Leon Redbone, the guitarist and singer who revived pre-WWII jazz, blues and Tin Pan Alley songs in the 1970s, died Thursday morning. He was 69.

Redbone, who retired from performing in 2015, was an iconoclastic throwback to the era of Bing Crosby, gramophones and vaudeville who spent four decades in character, often dressed onstage in a white suit with a string tie and a panama hat with dark glasses and a cigar.

He preferred to keep his heritage, hometown and age a mystery, an element furthered by his family in the statement they released.

“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. He's interested to see what Blind Blake, Emmett [Miller], and Jelly Roll [Morton] have been up to in his absence, and has plans for a rousing sing along number with Sári Barabás. An eternity of pouring through texts in the Library of Ashurbanipal will be a welcome repose, perhaps followed by a shot or two of whiskey with Lee Morse, and some long overdue discussions with his favorite Uncle, Suppiluliuma I of the Hittites. To his fans, friends, and loving family who have already been missing him so in this realm he says, ’Oh behave yourselves. Thank you.... and good evening everybody.’ "

Redbone, who emigrated to Canada in the 1960s from Cyprus according to a Toronto Star story, was discovered at the 1972 Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia, Ontario. Bob Dylan said that if he had his own record label, he would have signed Redbone, who went with Warner Bros.

With a repertoire that included “Shine On Harvest Moon,” “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” Redbone released 16 full-length albums, the first of which, On The Track, came out in 1975. He would release music through Blue Thumb, Private Music, Rounder and his own August Records, which put out his final album, Flying By, in 2014.