Redbone bringing low-key style to Met

Like most true American originals, Leon Redbone is hard to describe.

A cross between Groucho Marx and a singing bullfrog?

Well, not quite. The editors of “Music Hound’s Essential Albums – Folk” have given it a better shot. They describe Redbone as “equal parts Jelly Roll Morton, Mark Twain, Tiny Tim and Jiminy Cricket.”

Yeah, that’s close.

Redbone has been singing his blues, folk, jazz, country and Tin Pan Alley tunes for more than 25 years, yet most people will probably recognize him most readily for his TV ads for Budweiser. He’s the growly-voiced guy who sang, “This Bud’s for you.”

Yet he’s a serious student of American music, mining just about every lode of 20th-century styles from ragtime to vaudeville to R&B. On his most recent album, “AnyTime,” he even does a few ‘20s and ‘30s numbers that critics have described as sounding like a “rural Bing Crosby.”

Well, maybe that’s a stretch. But Redbone is certainly in Bing territory when it comes to his choice of material. On “AnyTime” he tackles “I’m Sittin’ on Top of the World,” “Sweet Lorraine” and “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree.”

He also delves into old-time blues and jazz with tunes like “I Ain’t Gonna Give You None of My Jelly Roll” and Fats Waller’s “Your Feet’s Too Big.” He is on record as saying that “most of the great sounds captured (on recordings) come from the ‘20s and a little later.”

Redbone is not exactly a workaholic when it comes to recording. “AnyTime” was his first release in seven years, and he told one reporter that he considered a decade to be the perfect gap between records.

Yet he continues to tour all over world, performing in his low-key and anachronistic style on guitar and banjo. And his Christmas album, “Christmas Island,” has become a holiday classic.

He is also in demand when a Redbone-like sound is required for a commercial jingle or TV theme songs. He even supplied the voice of a snowman in the hit movie “Elf.”

After all, no one else can sound like the original.