![]() | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(March 2022) |
Bob Livingston | |
---|---|
![]() Livingston performing in 2011 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Robert Lynn Livingston |
Born | November 26, 1948 |
Origin | San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
Genres | Country, progressive country, [1] Americana, folk |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, musician |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, bass, piano |
Years active | 1970s–present |
Labels | Capitol, MCA, Vireo, New Wilderness, Howlin' Dog |
Website | boblivingstonmusic |
Bob Livingston (born Robert Lynn Livingston November 26, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, bass player, and a founding member of The Lost Gonzo Band. Livingston was a key figure in the Cosmic Cowboy, progressive country and outlaw country movements that distinguished the Austin, Texas music scene in the 1970s. [2] Over the years, Bob Livingston has gained a reputation as a band leader, solo artist, session musician and sideman in folk, Americana and country music. He has toured without stop for 47 years, and is one of the most experienced and world traveled musicians in all of Texas music. Livingston's CD, Gypsy Alibi, released by New Wilderness Records in 2011, won the "Album of the Year" at the Texas Music Awards. In January 2016, Livingston was inducted into the Texas Music Legends Hall of Fame in 2016 and into the West Texas Music Walk of Fame in 2018. Howlin' Dog Records released Livingston's latest CD, Up The Flatland Stairs, January 10, 2018.
Livingston was born in San Antonio, Texas, but was raised in Lubbock. By the mid-1960s, he was active on the Lubbock music scene that was blossoming at the time along with several other Texas music artists such as Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Terry Allen, Jesse Taylor and David Halley. Livingston sharpened his skills as a guitarist and singer while attending Lubbock High and Texas Tech University. In 1968, he opened a folk club in Lubbock called The Attic, and shortly afterwards left Lubbock to pursue his own career in music. [3]
Livingston left Lubbock in 1969 and moved to Red River, New Mexico. There, he met a folk group called Three Faces West, whose members included Texas artist Ray Wylie Hubbard, Rick Fowler and Wayne Kidd. While playing in Aspen, Colorado in 1970, Livingston was discovered by talent scout and artist agent, Randy Fred, and was signed to Capitol Records. After meeting fellow Texas musician Michael Murphey in California, Livingston moved to Wrightwood, California and collaborated in a songwriting venture with Murphey, forming a music publishing company called Mountain Music Farm with other songwriters Roger Miller and Guy Clark. Livingston joined Michael Murphey's band playing bass, touring and recording together on Murphey's albums Geronimo's Cadillac and Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir. [3]
By 1971, Livingston had relocated to Austin, Texas and was playing in a band that switched between Michael Murphey and Jerry Jeff Walker. [3] Eventually, Murphey and Walker's interchangeable band condensed into their own group, called The Lost Gonzo Band. With Murphey and Walker, The Lost Gonzo Band helped bring about the progressive country genre, and along with the "redneck rock" and outlaw country movements, helpred define a distinct "Austin Sound". Livingston and the Lost Gonzo Band lent their talents to Jerry Jeff Walker for his seminal album Viva Terlingua, among many other records in Walker's career. [4] The Lost Gonzo Band recorded three nationally released albums with Capitol Records and MCA. The Lost Gonzo band returned for shows in 2021 and 2022.
Livington's songs have appeared in The Lost Gonzo Band's albums, his solo records, and in Jerry Jeff Walker's albums throughout Walker's career. Songs for Walker include "Public Domain" (1975 Ridin' High) (co-written with Gary P. Nunn), "Head Full of Nothin'" (co-written with Rick Fowler), and "It's a Good Night for Singing" (1976 It's a Good Night for Singing), "Roll on Down the Road" (1977 A Man Must Carry On), "Bittersweet" (1981 Reunion), "Gonzo Compadres" (1993 Viva Luckenbach), "Life's Too Short" (1996 Scamp), "Wanted for Love" co-written with Lane Bybee (1998 Cowboy Boots and Bathing Suits). [5]
In 2004, American rap artist Lloyd Banks of G-Unit recorded a song titled "Warrior" on his debut album The Hunger for More . The rapper's song contained a music sample of "Hold On", a song written by Livingston and Ray Wylie Hubbard and recorded by the Lost Gonzo Band but never formally released (but it was released by McKendree Spring on their 1975 album, Get Me to the Country). "Warrior" reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts and went platinum. [6]
Livingston's song "Love Cannot Be Broken" was in the soundtrack of Nobelity- a documentary about the world as seen through the eyes of various Nobel laureates, directed and produced by Turk Pipkin. [7] 2014 saw two recordings of Livingston's song "On A Dream With You" by Texas artists, Walt and Tina Wilkins, on their new "Be Mine" CD and by beloved Texas turned Santa Fe singer/song stylist, Bill Hearne, on his latest CD, "All That's Real."
"Cowgirl's Lullaby", co-written by Livingston and Andy Wilkinson was featured in the independent film, Barracuda produced in Austin 2017. It was also recorded by Wilkinson and appears on Livingston's new CD, "Up The Flatland Stairs."
Livingston has toured abroad since 1982 playing in the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, France, Canada and Mexico. Beginning in 1987, Livingston began a series of music tours sponsored by the U.S. State Department. Acting as an ambassador of American music, he has been sent repeatedly to over 25 different countries throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, [8] with an aim to promote goodwill and cross-cultural understanding through musical exchange. Livingston has toured Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Syria, Kuwait, Qatar, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Morocco, Tunisia and Angola, among others. These tours began as a solo act, but eventually included such musicians as long-time associate and guitarist John Inmon, fiddler Richard Bowden, and Livingston's son, guitarist and composer, Tucker Livingston. Livingston and his son gave performances and workshops on the art of guitar playing, songwriting craft, and a history of Texas music and folklore. The Livingstons regularly invited local musicians onstage to collaborate with their indigenous instruments. Editing and pre-production of a documentary film of these travels are currently in the works. Livingston has played and collaborated with groups as diverse as Nepal's, Sur Sudha, The Royal Omani Orchestra, with Ood players in the Middle East, Geisha singers in Vietnam, sitar and tabla players in India and Angola drums and choir ensembles. [9] [10]
In 2000, Livingston created, Texas Music International, an organization dedicated to bringing different musics of the world together for human and cultural harmony. His first venture was to create a multi-cultural group of musicians from Texas and India called Cowboys & Indians. Cowboys & Indians is supported by the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Economic Development Department of Austin. They give public performances and educational workshops and performances in Texas schools and theaters. Mixed instrumentation, music and cultural lore fuse with Native American, Texas folk and Indian themes that include Bharatanatyam dance, Native American flute and story song, Hindu mythology and cowboy yodeling. Based in Austin, members of Cowboys & Indians have included Bradley Kopp, Oliver Rajamani, Richard Bowden, Tucker Livingston, singer Nagavalli, and Bharatnatyam dancer Anu Naimpally. [11] [12] [13]
Livingston's discography spans beyond progressive country, singer-songwriter and rock music to such myriad recordings as film music for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , [14] environmental and peace activist albums, and a children's record on A Gentle Wind called, Open The Window. [15] During his career, Bob has performed with a long list of musicians: Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Willie Nelson, Willis Alan Ramsey, Leon Russell, and Garth Brooks. He has acted as Chairman of the Austin Music Commission, and serves on the board of directors at the Texas Music Museum. In 2009, Bob Livingston completed another tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department to France, Switzerland and several nations in Africa [16] [17] and in February 2017 played in Karachi, Pakistan. He currently lives in Austin and continues his work with Cowboys & Indians, The Lost Gonzo Band and on his solo career. Livingston's newest CD, Gypsy Alibi was co-produced by Livingston and Lloyd Maines and released on January 27, 2011, on New Wilderness Records. On July 9, 2011, Gypsy Alibi, won "Album of the Year" at the Texas Music Awards. Livingston's latest CD Up The Flatland Stairs, a collection of songs for Howlin' Dog Records, is set to be released in the summer of 2017.
Livingston is currently writing a book for Texas Tech University Press about his life and travels through the lens of his music career. Expected publishing date, 2023.
![]() |
In the beginning, Bob Livingston helped create progressive country music.
The U.S. state of Texas has long been a center for musical innovation and is the birthplace of many notable musicians. Texans have pioneered developments in Tejano and Conjunto music, Rock 'n Roll, Western swing, jazz, punk rock, country, hip-hop, electronic music, gothic industrial music, religious music, mariachi, psychedelic rock, zydeco and the blues.
Outlaw country is a subgenre of American country music created by a small group of iconoclastic artists active in the 1970s and early 1980s, known collectively as the outlaw movement, who fought for and won their creative freedom outside of the Nashville establishment that dictated the sound of most country music of the era. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and David Allan Coe were among the movement's most commercially successful members.
Lloyd Wayne Maines is an American country music record producer, musician and songwriter. He was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame as one of the first three members, the other two being Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. He is the father of Natalie Maines who is best known as the lead singer of The Chicks.
Michael Martin Murphey is an American singer-songwriter. He was one of the founding artists of progressive country. A multiple Grammy nominee, Murphey has six gold albums, including Cowboy Songs, the first album of cowboy music to achieve gold status since Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs by Marty Robbins in 1959. He has recorded the hit singles "Wildfire", "Carolina in the Pines", "What's Forever For", "A Long Line of Love", "What She Wants", "Don't Count the Rainy Days", and "Maybe This Time". Murphey is also the author of New Mexico's state ballad, "The Land of Enchantment". Murphey has become a prominent musical voice for the Western horseman, rancher, and cowboy.
Luckenbach is an unincorporated community 13 miles (19 km) from Fredericksburg in southeastern Gillespie County, Texas, United States. Named for Carl Albert Luckenbach, son of the early settler Jacob Luckenbach, the town is known as a venue for country music and for its German-Texan heritage.
Jerry Jeff Walker was an American country and folk singer-songwriter. He was a leading figure in the progressive country and outlaw country music movement. He was best known for having written the 1968 song "Mr. Bojangles".
Ray Wylie Hubbard is an American singer and songwriter.
Armadillo World Headquarters was an influential Texas music hall and beer garden in Austin at 5251⁄2 Barton Springs Road – at South First Street – just south of the Colorado River and downtown Austin. The 'Dillo flourished from 1970 to 1980. The structure that housed it, an old National Guard Armory, was demolished in 1981 and replaced by a 13-story office building.
Progressive country is a term used variously to describe a movement, radio format or subgenre of country music which developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a reaction against the slick, pop-oriented Nashville sound. Progressive country artists drew from Bakersfield and classic honky-tonk country and rock and roll, as well as folk, bluegrass, blues and Southern rock. Progressive country is sometimes conflated with outlaw country, which some country fans consider to be a harder-edged variant, and alternative country.
Gary P. Nunn is an American country music singer-songwriter. He is best known for writing "London Homesick Blues", which was the theme song for Austin City Limits from 1977 to 2004. Nunn is also considered the father of the progressive country scene that started in Austin in the early 1970s.
The Lost Gonzo Band was an American country rock band which was founded in 1972 and toured and recorded with some of the most iconic and colorful musicians in Texas including Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey, and Ray Wylie Hubbard. They were the musicians on such quintessential albums as Murphey's Geronimo's Cadillac and Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir and Jerry Jeff's Viva Terlingua. The original members of the band were Bob Livingston, Gary P. Nunn, John Inmon, Kelly Dunn, Tomas Ramirez and Donny Dolan. Over the years, the band has also included Paul Pearcy, Craig D. Hillis, Herbert Steiner, Mike Holleman, Michael McGeary, Bobby Smith, Lloyd Maines, Radoslav Lorković and Riley Osbourn.
¡Viva Terlingua! is a progressive country album by Jerry Jeff Walker and The Lost Gonzo Band. It was recorded in August 1973 at the Luckenbach Dancehall in Luckenbach, Texas, and released three months later, in November 1973, on MCA Nashville Records. The album captures Walker's strived-for "gonzo country" sound, a laid-back country base with notes of "outlaw" rock, blues, and traditional Mexican norteño and Tejano styles. The album was mostly recorded live in the dancehall without an audience over several days, but two songs were recorded live with an audience.
Walter Hyatt was an American singer and songwriter. His group, Uncle Walt's Band, was involved in the alternative music scene in Austin, Texas.
Inner Sanctum Records was a record shop in Austin, Texas. The retailer was variously cited as the first indie record shop in Texas and, at the time of its closure, the oldest in Central Texas.
Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir is the second album by American singer-songwriter Michael Martin Murphey. According to AllMusic, this album established Murphey as a progressive country musician. Murphey's impact on the genre was as such that one of the many names for the genre, "Cosmic Cowboy music", was taken from Murphy's "Cosmic Cowboy, Pt. 1", a song that appears on this album. The album peaked at number 196 on the Billboard 200.
Ace in the Hole Band is the backup band for American country music performer George Strait, who was the band's lead singer before beginning his solo career in the early 1980s. The band formed at San Marcos, Texas in the 1970s, and recorded several singles for "D Records" including the Strait-penned "I Just Can't Go On Dying Like This" and "I Don't Want To Talk It Over Anymore". After Strait attained status as the "King of Country", the group released an album of its own in 1995 featuring vocals from Darrell McCall and Mel Tillis.
Tommy Alverson is a Texas Country musician from Mineral Wells, Texas. He attended and played varsity football at Itasca High School with Austin's Sam Baker. During junior college, he played guitar with James Hand, and later produced Hand's first album.
"Geronimo's Cadillac" is the debut single by American country folk singer-songwriter Michael Martin Murphey, then billed as Michael Murphey. It was the title cut of his 1972 debut album which was an A&M Records release.
"Desperados Waiting for a Train" is a song written by Guy Clark and originally recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker for his 1973 album Viva Terlingua. It subsequently appeared on Rita Coolidge's 1974 album Fall into Spring, David Allan Coe's third album, The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy (1974), Tom Rush's album Ladies Love Outlaws the same year, before Clark's own rendition was released on his first LP, 1975's Old No. 1. Clark has stated that the song is about his grandmother's boyfriend named Jack who was a grandfather figure to him.