A 2024 National Storytelling Festival Preview
One of four New Voices at the National Storytelling Festival, Lipbone Redding will bring his singular sound and global sensibility to the tents in October.
A wandering spirit, Lipbone has traveled all over the world, picking up eclectic techniques in unexpected places.
His adventurous lifestyle was a leap of faith from his quiet upbringing in eastern North Carolina, which he left as a young man to pursue a career in theater.
He started in New York City, where he quickly transitioned from working as an actor to music and busking in the subway system. “I’ve always been on a mission to find my most authentic self,” Lipbone says. “I don’t like other people’s words coming out of my mouth, which is an important part of how I became a musician. I wanted to discover my own story.”
At the time, New York was a center of experimentation for musicians who worked with household objects and unconventional instruments. (STOMP and the Blue Man Group were popular shows on Broadway.) While Lipbone plays traditional instruments like the guitar, his musical signature is voice instrumentation – the imitation of sounds from trumpets and other instruments as well as throat singing, which involves the fascinating practice of holding two tones at once.
“Everybody has a different idea of what music is, and I think mine is somewhere far to the left of center,” he says.
Much of Lipbone’s training has involved listening to music from around the globe and adapting different traditions during the course of his travels. The influences he cites are stylistically and geographically diverse, including Tom Waits, Ethiopian pop, Bach, James Brown, and even opera (which he says he “just picked up here and there”). “I think as an artist, you can call me an assemblagist because I like to take pieces from different places and bring them all together into one cohesive idea,” Lipbone says. “To me, it’s all a conversation. Sometimes you don’t use words for your conversations; you use a sound.”
Above all, he says, he likes to play feel-good music. Lipbone’s performances often involve interactive elements that give his audiences the chance to sing along.
Now in his late fifties, the storyteller and musician has settled down, at least relatively, reducing his travel from 300 days a year to 100. But he still prioritizes time for adventures, going on an unplanned international journey about once a year with just a backpack and a guitar.
While his stories and songs reflect the places he has been, Lipbone considers his work to be about his fundamental and abiding love for humanity. “I love people, I really do,” he says. “And I believe in us. I think we have a lot of potential. In the United States, we’re very focused on our little group of ideas. By traveling, I feel like you get opened up.”
While this will be Lipbone’s first appearance at the National Storytelling Festival, he isn’t a stranger to the area. He has performed in Jonesborough twice for the town’s Music on the Square series.
For those who aren’t yet familiar with his work, Lipbone advises they can expect the unexpected. “Some of the songs are stories and some of the stories turn into songs,” he says. “And some of the songs turn into weird creatures that walk around on the stage.”
Lipbone is the latest featured teller in our New Voice series, a preview of the 52nd Annual National Storytelling Festival. You can read our profile of Sufian Zhemukhov here. Watch for two more profiles in the coming months, and learn about our other featured storytellers here. Join us for the Festival in Jonesborough October 4-6, 2024.