| Red to Blue | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1986 | |||
| Recorded | 1985 | |||
| Studio |
| |||
| Genre | Jazz, blues | |||
| Length | 31:51 | |||
| Label | August | |||
| Producer | Beryl Handler, Leon Redbone | |||
| Leon Redbone chronology | ||||
| ||||
Red to Blue is an album by the American musician Leon Redbone, released in 1986. [1] [2] It was his first album for August Records, a label started by Redbone. [3] Redbone supported the album with a North American tour. [4]
The album was produced by Beryl Handler and Redbone. [5] David Bromberg accompanied Redbone on the cover of the Bob Dylan song "Living the Blues". [6] Hank Williams Jr. provided a spoken part for the cover of his father's version of "Lovesick Blues". [7] Biréli Lagrène played guitar on "Whose Honey Are You?" [8] The Roches contributed backing vocals; Dr. John played piano. [9] [10] The album title comes from a Jelly Roll Morton quote that describes the transition from Spanish musical styles to blues-based ones. [8]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [11] |
| MusicHound Folk: The Essential Album Guide | [12] |
The New York Times wrote that "Leon Redbone carries to a peak his mixture of jazz-filtered old pop songs, blues and 'contemp-folk' with the assistance of a pool of traditional jazz and folk-jazz musicians who light momentarily like hummingbirds in these performances, then take off again." [13] The Columbia Daily Tribune said that the album "saunters and shuffles like an old hepcat, past his prime but still jiving along at his own unhurried pace." [14]
The Vancouver Sun determined that "Redbone's almost hallucinogenic, sweeping you up in the gentle swing of his music and transporting you back to a '30s dance hall." [15] The Atlanta Journal-Constitution deemed the album "his standard fare—barely intelligible vocals that get so loooow, clarinets, coronets, guitars, banjoes and tuba." [16] Likewise, the Detroit Free Press considered it "the same old hambone." [17]
AllMusic praised "the usual Dixieland backing augmenting his tasteful fingerpicked guitar work." [11]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Diamonds Don't Mean a Thing" | Leon Redbone | 3:02 |
| 2. | "Lovesick Blues" | Cliff Friend, Irving Mills | 2:44 |
| 3. | "Reaching for Someone and Not Finding Anyone There" | Walter Donaldson, Edgar Leslie | 2:08 |
| 4. | "Somebody Stole My Gal" | Leo Wood | 2:08 |
| 5. | "Steal Away Blues" | Redbone | 2:34 |
| 6. | "Aw You Salty Dog" | Redbone | 3:18 |
| 7. | "Border of the Quarter" | Owen Davis | 3:01 |
| 8. | "Someday Sweetheart" | Benjamin Franklin Spikes, John Spikes | 2:37 |
| 9. | "Whose Honey Are You?" | J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie | 2:11 |
| 10. | "Living the Blues" | Bob Dylan | 2:22 |
| 11. | "Nobody Cares If I'm Blue" | Harry Akst, Grant Clark | 2:41 |
| 12. | "Think of Me Thinking of You" | Charlie Abbott, Johnny Marvin, Dale Wimbrow | 3:23 |
David Bromberg is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. An eclectic artist, Bromberg plays bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country and western, and rock and roll. He is known for his quirky, humorous lyrics, and the ability to play rhythm and lead guitar at the same time.
Biréli Lagrène is a French jazz guitarist who came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt–influenced style. He often performs in swing, jazz fusion, and post-bop styles.
T Shirt is a 1976 album by Loudon Wainwright III. Unlike his earlier records, this saw Wainwright adopt a full blown rock band (Slowtrain) - though there are acoustic songs on T Shirt, including a talking blues. According to Wainwright on the 2006 CD liner notes, it received a scathing review from Rolling Stone which depressed him so much he stayed in bed for five days. By the early 1990s, he disowned the album in a radio interview broadcast in Australia. However, by the time of the CD remaster he admitted to a much more sympathetic view of the album(s), which he referred to as his 'puppies'.
Final Exam is an album by the American musician Loudon Wainwright III, released in 1978. He supported it with a North American tour. The album was re-released on Telarc in 2007, coupled with his 1976 album, T Shirt. In 1995, Wainwright acknowledged that it was his least favorite of his albums.
The Audreys are an Australian blues and roots band which formed in Adelaide, in 2004 by founding mainstay, Taasha Coates on lead vocals, melodica, harmonica and ukulele. They have released four studio albums, Between Last Night and Us, When the Flood Comes, Sometimes the Stars and 'Til My Tears Roll Away. Founding guitarist, Tristan Goodall, died on 2 July 2022, aged 48, of an unspecified illness.
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Hazmat Modine is a musical group based in New York City and led by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Wade Schuman. Their music is rooted in blues and also touches on folk, jazz and World music. The most recent lineup of the band circa 2015 features harmonica, tuba, trumpet, saxophone, drums and two guitars, as well as solo and harmony vocals.
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Never Letting Go is the fourth album by singer–songwriter Phoebe Snow, released in 1977.
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Midnight on the Water is an album by David Bromberg. His fourth album, it was released by Columbia Records as a vinyl LP in 1975. It was released in CD format by Sony Records in 1994, and by SBME Special Markets in 2009. It was also released as a double CD, combined with Bromberg's previous album Wanted Dead or Alive, by BGO Records in 2010.
The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz is a six-LP box set released in 1973 by the Smithsonian Institution. Compiled by jazz critic, scholar, and historian Martin Williams, the album included tracks from over a dozen record labels spanning several decades and genres of American jazz, from ragtime and big band to post-bop and free jazz.
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Christmas Island is an album by the musician Leon Redbone. It was released in 1988, with a rerelease the following year.
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