Bismarck, North Dakota - News

There will be construction happening on a Bismarck stage in front of a crowd March 22, a work of heart, as singer and guitarist Leon Redbone puts a soul-rub on each song.

It's about taking a couple of words, or just one word, and pulling them, with Redbone's rumbling voice, through a measure, in a tug and slide of tender purpose.

He tries to be a stylist who reaches into the mystery of the song and brings out that thing, that one moment that listeners will want to hang onto, to stop time for, because it's the tingling, defining moment of the song.

"My interest in music is that moment, even one bar (one measure), and expression ... that turns that switch on for a moment," said Redbone, a favorite guest of talk show host Johnny Carson, and more recently a frequent "Saturday Night Live" performer. A recent project was singing the title track on the movie "Elf," as well as acting in it opposite Will Ferrell.

That moment is something he says he hears in so many of the songs in the era he is enamoured with - the mid- to late 1800s through early 20th century, the ragtime, folk-jazz and flapper-era radio ditties.

Redbone said he doesn't hear those moments in today's music.

The sentiments expressed "don't seem that important or genuine," he said.

"It's more theatrics. There's no great effort put into singing other than volume and yelling," he said.

He mulled over in a recent interview the possibility of putting together a collection of these songs that have those "moments," so people can better understand what he's talking about. For example, there's that moment in the second verse of "I Dream of Jeanie," sung by the great Irish tenor, John McCormack (1884-1945).

"If that doesn't get you, you might have tolisten to it again," he said.

There are probably a thousand recordings of that song, "But can you find the way that actually reaches the listener ... That's my definition of music," Redbone said.

And he hears it in songs sung by Gene Austin (1900-1972), particularly his material from the 1920s, and in the work of singer Lee Morse (1897-1954).

Regarding his own performances attempts:

"I'm just a desperate individual trying to get through a song," he said and chuckled. "Trying to find a moment in a song where it actually means something."

That song might be Jelly Roll Morton's "I Hate a Man Like You," or Eddy Arnold's "Bouquet of Roses,"or one of his own.

Redbone, also a songwriter, was admired way back in the 1970s by Bob Dylan. In a past Rolling Stone interview, Dylan said if he ever started a label, Redbone would be the first artist he wanted to record. Redbone created television title tunes for "Mr. Belvedere" and "Harry and the Hendersons" and had a guest role on ABC's "Life Goes On." His signature songs were used for New York choreographer Eliot Feld's ballets. And Redbone was the "getting to know you" voice on a series of Chevrolet advertisements.

Another thing he's known for is not being known. He doesn't reveal his age, address or family ties. Since he first emerged as a performer in Toronto in the 1970s, the best guess is he's Canadian.

He said he doesn't talk about age because he doesn't live that way. "I could be a thousand," he said.

"People think of their lives in a linear fashion," he said. "I don't think that way ... The ability to think that way might be the day I drop dead. I try to not occupy myself with mundane things."

He said he doesn't know if he lives anywhere, but he finds himself on the East Coast often.

When he finds himself in Bismarck, he won't be alone.

Leo Kottke, 62, of Minnesota, described as an acoustic guitar virtuoso, also will share the Bismarck billing. He has known Redbone for more than 30 years.

Kottke knows some things, knows where Redbone lives, but wouldn't

divulge. He doesn't know Redbone's age, he said in a phone interview. And he knows Redbone has family, two daughters, and has strong feelings about bringing the gold standard back.

Redbone says he likes being around Kottke because he's "fascinating." "We talk about all kinds of strange things,"Redbone said. "I like to get together for breakfast with him, talk in the dressing room. ... He's very interesting."

Kottke's debut album, "Twelve String Blues," came out in 1969, and he is a fixture in the Twin Cities folk club scene. After cutting back in 1988 on live performances, he focused on creating albums. But he did just come back from some Australian performances, where he says his manager fell into a wombat hole and broke an ankle.

Kottke said he met Redbone more than 30 years ago when in Atlanta he asked him why there was a hole in his trumpet case and Redbone replied that that was so his umbrella could stick out. Kottke said that's when he figured they could get along. He said Redbone, who has an incredible memory, could probably recall the day of the week they met and what the weather was like.

He said Redbone has the nation's road system in his head, memorized, and could give directions, no problem, from, say, Macon, Ga., to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. A skill sharpened after Redbone survived a 1979 plane crash and now sees cars as the better way to go.

Kottke said they don't play together. "We've done that a sum total of about three minutes," he said. They each have their own distinct sets. Redbone with his era and Kottke is in another era. "I'm in about the 17th century,"he said. "I don't know why. I have actually heard a couple things that sound like I'm in that century," Kottke said.

Kottke said he didn't realize he was playing in Bismarck. He knows what he's doing tomorrow, but for the rest, he now employs people. He doesn't even mow his grass; he finds some "poor soul" to do that. Free time at home might find him playing guitar, sometimes for five minutes, sometimes all day.

And there's much reading. Kottke, an English major at one point, has discovered the poetry of John Clare, an 18th century British laborer who worked the land before it was segmented into private property, when one could just walk out into the landscape and plant. Clare's "The Seasons" is "nothing you'll ever read," he said. "I can't describe it."

And he likes Homer and has rediscovered Samuel Beckett, an Irish writer, who Kottke thought was a joke in college and now loves.

"I'm right at home if I'm in someone's imagination," he said. "A book for me is just as good as a human being."

But there's also the guitar, which came into his life at age 11 when he was so sickly, he wasn't supposed to sit up. His mother brought it home for him to strum. He said when he made an E chord, "it hit me right between the eyes."

"It was huge, huge ... just the sound of this horrible thing in my head, all it was and all it is ... and it hasn't abated, hasn't diminished at all,"he said.

"Everything I've done, except making it a job, which I never intended, was to open up that E chord. It was like you got a glimpse of home, maybe. It's a kind of geography. What you want to do is see more of it."

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier.) @bismarcktribune.com

What: Leon Redbone and Leo Kottke in concert

Where: Belle Mehus City Auditorium, 201 N. Sixth St.

When: 7:30 p.m. March 22

Tickets: $29.50 and $35

For information: 222-2121