You may know him as the voice of those All detergent commercials.

Leon Redbone
The Ark, Ann Arbor
Sunday, 7/27/97

This was written late at night in a drunken haze and afterglow from the show. I fear my typos will inhibit my message. Still... I press on...

He came out with a clear glass, shaped like a beaker, about 2-and-a-half inches tall, and about an inch-and-a-half in diameter. The liquid inside was dark, like espresso ... About halfway through the show someone asked him, "What are you drinking?" and he said crisply, with a beat, "Water." By that time, he had brought a taller, paper cup onto the stage, which likely held water.

The stage at the new Ark contained a petite grand piano -- black with the top open, toward the backdrop (it was on the right side of the stage) and three standard wooden (probably oak) desk chairs, with molded seats and straight backs. One was dead center, for Leon, with a little cabinet beside it (like a small desk, four spindly legs and a flat top that lifted to reveal cabinet space about three inches deep), another stand with a tiny fan on it, pointed out toward the audience, and a small silver music stand in front of him. That had a tiny light, which he didn't turn on until midpoint in the show, when he began singing without playing (lyrics sheets, I assumed). He played familiar and not so familiar tunes, including "Lonesome Blues" and "Up a Lazy River."

The rest of the audience caught onto his humor quicker than I did. I figured many of them had seen him perform before. Early in the show, however, the sidemen -- something like "the Amazing Kelso," playing what I believe to be a cornet, and Dan ? on clarinet -- began clowning, pretending to get bored when Leon played an extended piece on the guitar, and jumping as if startled when he hit a note especially hard.

Although I later learned Leon had a tuning device at his side, his guitar was tuned so that his bass string would buzz noticeably. But I think that was for effect, as he struck hard for emphasis, the way he would hit vocal notes with staccato effect. He also rumbled notes deep in the throat and wiggled his jaw pronouncedly to create odd and comic effects.

After about 40 minutes, Leon said he was going to ... "ah ... take a stroll ... while Mr. Robinson," the pianist, entertained us all ... while Leon "changed his costume ... the lace is being ironed as we speak ... "
So Leon got up and took his cane and let the pianist take a turn showing off and he did some really complex jazz stuff, the kind that loses me rhythmically. And Leon came back with the white cup in his hand (and in the same costume he had on earlier -- white suit he is usually seen in), playing up the drama of the song Robinson was playing, waving his arms, then disappearing and coming back with a stool in one hand, waving it like to drive off a bull, then disappearing again.

The two horn players were both really good. The cornet player (? if that's what it was) was blond and pretty young looking -- maybe late 20s? -- and played with a plunger wah-wah, paper mute and ? not sure ...
The clarinetist was dark, tall and also fairly young-looking. Maybe 35? He had a facile technique, creating waves and wonderful sad, crying sounds. He only muted with his hand, for a wah-wah effect. Both were extremely adept at playing soft breaks and fills. Wonderful players!

Also, early on the horn players established themselves as jokesters by competing with each other musically, challenging each other to get more applause or show off more than the other. A little musical joke broke out as Leon was finishing a song and a few people in the audience persisted in clapping over something, I'm not sure how it started, but the horns started playing with it and stetching it out, with small pockets applauding little riffs. Leon tried to shush the audience with disapproving looks, and this went on a short while, and finally, Leon played a small riff himself and ended with a dramatic flair, so we applauded that and he seemed satisfied, then went into something else to distract us. It was a lot of fun.

Early in the show (when Thom was running to get more beer), Leon held up a Polaroid camera, and snapped a shot of the crowd. He said, "Wait a minute ...(he flipped it around as if to dry it). We'll pass this around. Just sign your name, and be sure to include your social security number. And your thumb print ... and a small note. We're still looking for audiences to take on the road. ... Bus leaves at 2. Only bring a small bag (holding out hands to emphasise no more than two-feet wide), please."

After the first real break, when the entire band left the stage -- Leon pumping his hat up and down with the end of his cane as he went -- the band was taking the stage again, and Thom was standing near the back, next to a pillar. He yelled, "Lazy Bones!" and Leon said, "Hey, don't call me names!" Then others shouted out their favorites, including "Big Chief Buffalo Nickel," but Leon wasn't taking requests. Then someone from stage right shouted "Sing anything." So finally, he said he was going to play a request for a fella back stage who was the son of an old friend ... blah blah blah ... and the friend was a castrati ... and he sang sort of falsetto, very quietly ...
"He sang real high ..." he said.

At one point, he said he'd brought his friend, Rover. Then he took out of the case a broken squeeze-bulb horn, called to "Rover," and said, "Here, boy." He held the horn up to the mike, and squeezed the ball, but it just breathed hard, like panting. He said Rover had been with him for a long time, but it wasn't the same old dog it used to be. He then held it up toward the audience, and lifted the broken butt end, the squeeze ball part. It was funny in an innuendo kind of way.

Then, he picked up a small bottle from his cabinet/table and said, "Please allow me to indulge in one of my pleasures of life ..." and he flicked on the tiny fan there ... opened the bottle and said, "This is one of the few things you can do for fun for only 50 cents." And he put a bubble thingy in front of the fan, as Dan the Clarinet Man did a Lawrence Welk. Leon dipped a few more times and started doing, "I'm forever blowing Bubbles."

Then he said bottles of bubbles would be for sale, "only 50 cents," but they made a joke of one of the boys forgetting to bring the case of bubbles for sale, and he feigned annoyance.

At the end, I ran into a friend from junior high school, who was attending the show. She pointed out that Leon was signing autographs, so I ran and got a flier and got in line behind her mother-in-law and talked to Leon.

In the line, I found on the floor a guitar string wound in a circle, so I picked it up as a joke and said to Leon, "Can I wear your ring?" and he looked aback and said, "What's that for? Around my neck?"
So I laughed, and Thom started to tell him about our dog. I cut him off in my enthusiasm (sorry honey) and said, "I hope you're not offended, but we named our dog Leon after you because he was a redbone hound." He said, "Should've named him Rover."

I asked him for an autograph, and he signed it with a Sharpie Marker he had with him. Then I asked what he really was drinking on stage, and he put his left hand up to his mouth to whisper, but I didn't get it. He had to repeat it twice for me to understand: Jagermeister.

It was cool.