“Dogs of Santiago,” the opening track to Lipbone Redding’s stirring debut, Hop the Fence, may be the only song in recent memory to be written entirely from a canine perspective: “Mama was a purebred/She lived the life/She had fences and family/She was a rich poodle’s wife.”
For Redding, the charming “Santiago” caps a life of travel and adventure, of artistic response to challenge. After September 11th, he took a leave from New York to spend an extended period in Chile, where he found himself captivated by the strays roaming the capital’s streets.
“I was thinking a lot about reincarnation, dying, living and all these things, and I thought, ‘Wow, what if you die and come back as a dog?’ They seemed to be part of everybody’s life. They’d hang out together on the street corner like a little group, and then they’d all go their separate ways. You could just imagine them having these conversations, ‘Hey, there’s this lady over there. She always gives us food. Let’s go over there and look sad for a minute.’”
Since then Redding has climbed the Himalayas, studied Karnatic music in Varanassi, read philosophy with a guru in Rishikesh and collaborated with choreographer Bill T. Jones, whom he credits with “expanding my way of thinking about art and music.”
“I like meeting new people, having new experiences. I like the unknown.”
As a youth, Redding cut tobacco in his native North Carolina (“You could either work for McDonald’s or you could work in the tobacco fields”) before coming to New York, where he performed in subways and developed the signature style upon which his stage name (“Lipbone”) is based. Using his mouth, he can mimic trumpets, trombones and percussion with startling accuracy.
“I call myself a ‘voicestrumentalist.’ I used the subway to get my voice to where I wanted it to be, as sort of a sharpening stone. Trial by fire—that’s kind of what playing in the subway was for me. I had no other choice. To be a full-time musician, I feel like you really can’t give yourself any other options to back out.”
At the Living Room, Lipbone will share a bill with Kelly Flint, herself in the spotlight with a fine new release, Drive All Night. Both discs were produced by bassist Jeff Eyrich, founding member of Dave’s True Story (of which Flint was vocalist).
“I like people,” Lipbone explains. “Some musicians have told me, ‘You shouldn’t pander to the audience,’ but I want everybody to feel good.”
March 22, The Living Room, 154 Ludlow St. (betw. Stanton & Rivington), 212-533-7235; 9, $5 suggested tip.
