The enigmatic singer with the panama hat, deep voice and thing for really old songs is gone. The media covered is real identity enough and career just fine.
I would prefer to write about all the joy he brought me as a kid and today as an adult in my love for musical acts which are also personas, e.g. The Aquabats as a superhero team on stage or Southern Culture on the Skids as a trio of backwoods hillbillies.
While I was growing up, Leon was more often seen in commercials like this memorable one below:
I did see him on The Tonight Show and SNL. What he did was intriguing despite my stronger bias for popular Rock and Pop tunes at the time. Leon just had this fascinating charisma and sincerity behind those “ancient” tunes he performed on stage with just his voice and a guitar.
In adulthood, I grew to appreciate his body of covers as a tribute to the rich body of Americana we’ve set aside.
Thanks Leon Redbone for what you did. You brought back some musical history without it being disposable kitsch or ironic. Let’s hope somebody at PledgeMusic puts together a proper, complete boxed set of your catalog with extras.