Pop Music Review : Leon Redbone Show: An Exercise in Total Recall

The world of Leon Redbone is a place filled with tunes that, as the Beatles once put it, were hits before your mother was born and where the band looks like something out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.

Redbone’s 70-minute nostalgic excursion Thursday at the Coach House reflected quieter, if not necessarily simpler, times. The singer-guitarist could have made the evening a bit timely by sticking to and plugging his current “Whistling in the Wind” album of oldies and original period pieces. Yet he only pulled a handful of numbers from it.

Otherwise, it was business as usual as he strummed, warbled and mugged his way through the set.

Backed by a versatile four-piece band, Redbone seemed in a blue mood, focusing on tales of love gone sour and heartbreak while keeping his usual between-tune high jinks to a minimum. He jumped into one blues number with a gruff, Delta-like delivery before soothing the sound with his accustomed mellow croon.

His enunciation, smeared as if mumbled through a mouthful of marshmallow, made bits and pieces of lyrics hard to follow. That technique worked just fine on such familiar pieces as “Love Letters in the Sand” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” But on less familiar tunes, such as Irving Berlin’s 1914 ballad “When It’s Night Time in Dixie,” the lack of clarity kept those of us too young to remember the original from understanding the all-important lyric.

Redbone’s band gave the evening strong Dixieland flavors. Cornetist Peter Ecklund, employing a variety of mutes, used every opportunity to swing, and Redbone sometimes helped facilitate this by jumping up the tempo when it was the cornet’s turn to solo. Bob Gordon’s clarinet, by contrast, worked best in response, answering the brass calls or crying along with the vocalist in fine Bourbon Street style.

The utility player was Vince Giordano, plucking away on upright bass, huffing up a storm on sousaphone or booming on the gigantic bass saxophone. Also showing many talents was drummer John Gill, who kept time on a snare cymbal setup, added slide antics on trombone and did a little strumming himself. In addition, he endured the blunt of Redbone’s between-tune, vaudeville-inspired banter.

Heard the one about the girl Redbone met in an alley? “She said she’d do anything I wanted for $50.”

Gill: “So what’d ya do?”

Redbone: “She’s over paintin’ my house right now.”

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Despite this silly bit, Redbone pretty much stuck to business, though his familiar routines--snapping photos of the crowd with a Polaroid, sipping daintily from a pint glass--were there to enjoy.

Early on, he used the glass for a little slide guitar and a discourse on Don Ho: “I like Don Ho . . . he’s very relaxed.” But he didn’t take the opportunity to perform the Hawaiian lament “My Little Grass Shack,” as he does on the new album.

He finished up with what have become signature tunes for him, “Up a Lazy River” and “Diddy Wah Diddy,” before coming out to encore with the announcement, “It just so happens that I know one more tune.”

And that’s the only disappointment with a Redbone show. With the hundreds of tunes in his repertoire, you can’t help but feel cheated when he doesn’t do your personal favorite (in our case, “Bouquet of Roses” from the new album). Then, after an hour’s escapism, he turns you back to the real world.