About
“Lipbone Redding brings new meaning to using one’s voice as an instrument. The Lipbone Orchestra is in fact a trio, but can get away with the implication of that there is a stage full of musicians.” – NY1 NEWS
Storyteller, songwriter, guitarist and voice-stramentalist Lawrence “Lipbone” Redding, has spent the last 20 years traveling the world collecting and recounting exotic tales through music and performance art.
With humble beginnings as a New York City subway singer, Lipbone now performs in festivals, theaters and concert halls across America and Europe. He also teaches workshops and collaborates with other musicians, dancers, and performance artists.
What began as an attempt to populate his songs with more soloing, has become a trademark and an innovative instrument all its own. Redding worked the subways of New York City during the late night hours in 1998 through 2001 singing soulful ballads and stomping out echoey grooves. Late one night when a crowd of weary straphangers had gathered on the northbound side of the uptown 6 platform at Spring street, something amazing happened. Always prone to imitating sounds and people, Redding began using his voice as a wordless solo instrument over the funky strumming of his acoustic guitar, a kind of wailing that bounced from wall to wall in the subterranean cavern. He reformed the shape of his lips, and quite by accident, the sound resembled a brass instrument. Long slow sliding tones and bright brash explosions of musical joy. The commuters smiled and applauded as the train pulled into the station. Thus was born, “The Lipbone”
“Thankfully Lipbone Redding is far more than just his ability to make trombone sounds with his mouth and turns out not only to be a decent songwriter but an intelligent and skilled musician.” – Richard Marcus, Blog Critics
After traveling the world for several years, performing with musical artists from many cultures and with extended visits to South America and India, Lipbone came back to New York. He worked tirelessly to advance his performing career by playing in cafe’s, bars and restaurants. He recorded and printed his own CD’s and sold thousands of copies. Several months later, he had 4 steady shows a week as a solo artist. It was not long after his return that he met bassist Jeff Eyrich at Mike Williams’ “Soho Pickin’ Party,” a monthly packed house-party featuring new and well-known songwriters. The alchemy between Jeff and Lipbone was instantaneous and within weeks, along with drummer George Mel, they had secured steady gigs as a group at Jules Jazz Bistro, one of New York’s hottest downtown jazz night-spot. One night Lipbone and his band performed following famed comedian Joan Rivers at The Cutting Room with drummer, Rich Zukor. The combination was an instant success and The LipBone Orchestra was born. The three haven’t looked back since.
“Lipbone Redding and the Lipbone Orchestra may be the most remarkable band I’ve seen. Playing mostly original material, the present a wonderfully entertaining and engaging show. Check out their recordings but see them in person if you can. You won’t believe your eyes, and you won’t stop smiling.” – Jim Primock, Colorado Blues Society
In 2007 BePop Records released Lipbone’s first album, “Hop The Fence,” produced by Jeff Eyrich and featuring The Lipbone Orchestra. The record moved to the #1 position in the JamBand Radio charts and remained there for months. The song “Dogs Of Santiago” became a staple of DJ’s at NPR and community radio stations across the country. Recorded, manufactured and promoted on a shoestring budget, the record was an Indie success.
It was also at this time that Lipbone began collaborating with Broadway Director/Choreographer Bill T. Jones on an evening length work entitled Chapel/Chapter. Along with musicians Chris Lancaster, Daniel Bernard Roumain and Alicia Hall Moran, Lipbone helped to create a score that was heralded by the press and audiences alike. Chapel/Chapel toured internationally until 2009 and won several awards including the 2007 Bessie Award for Best Collaborative Effort and the 2008 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Production.
“The quite remarkable music plays a vital role in the overall impact.
It is keening, churchy, measured, and intense.” – John Rockwell, New York Times
Teaming up with agent Karen Grossman, Lipbone Redding and The Lipbone Orchestra, began to capitalize on the radio success of “Hop The Fence,” by visiting radio stations and securing their place in festivals, theaters and clubs across America. They released the follow-up record “Party On The Fire Escape” to a waiting public. The record was a departure from the “One take” vibe of the debut album with more production time in the studio, but the result was another acclaimed album from The Lipbone Orchestra. The band was delving deeper into the southern roots with songs like “Voodoo Cadillac,” and the funky 70′s soul inspired “Ghetto Girl,” “Chandra” a fond remembrance of a trek up the Ganges river, and tongue in cheek bawdiness in “Single Again.” The title track “Party On The Fire Escape” was a tip of the hat to Lipbone’s newfound roots in The Bronx and a successful radio single.
In 2009 Lipbone and his Orchestra released the EP, “Science of Bootyism” offering four new tracks and 2 re-mixes by Danish producer Mads Nordheim. The original idea was an overflow of tracks from the previous album, “Party On The Fire Escape,” but the inspiration was there so the band recorded several more tracks to fill out the EP.
In 2011 Lipbone Redding and the LipBone Orchestra released their newest album, “UNBROKEN.” “UNBROKEN” represents a break from previous albums in that the thinking head, the beating heart, and the shaking ass all arrive on the same train. The record’s rootsy rocking title track introduces a character who is a brash teenager grown up and still driving a beat-up station wagon, living in New York’s famous Chelsea Hotel. Awaiting the chance to steal back his high school sweetheart, our hero forms a plan to steal her back from her high-class lifestyle with his homemade rock and roll blasting from a stereo tape deck.
The record follows deeper issues like “Sacred Ground,” the swampy tale of a modern Ulysses returning home only to find a shopping mall where his beloved home once stood and “You Broke It, You Bought It,” which on the surface seems to be a song about a love affair with the town Jezebel, but draws parallels to the decade long war which has been raging in the mind of America.
There are elements of 60′s psychedelia in the hopeful “Wanna Be Kind,” which finds icons Superman and Cinderella moving out of the city and taking up residence in a farmhouse “living off the land in their own backyard.”
Lipbone pays tribute by covering long-time hero Joe Tex’s “The Love You Save (May Be Your Own)” in a unique southern soul style spiced with slide guitar and electric organ. In true Lipbone fashion, The LBO also presents a Ska version of Timmy Thomas’ smash one-man band hit, “Why Can’t We Live Together” and school teacher Nancy Dupree’s Folkways gem “James Brown.”
The LBO continue to polish their groove and expand their touring. Lipbone remains constant in his writing and regularly plays solo shows, offers workshops, and collaborates with other artists.
“Art is the only form of immortality that I am absolutely sure of.” Terence McKenna
