Bob Livingston; Lakeside. Saturday, June 27, 2009

"Everybody from Lubbock turned out to be a dope dealer or a musician."
- Bob Livingston

Steeped in the sounds of Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison's country rock, two of Lubbock's early musical rebels, Bob wandered the western states ending up in California where he became part of a community of displaced Texas musicians including B.W. Stevenson, Willie Nelson and Michael Murphey (before he became known as Michael Martin Murphey). It was with Murphey that Bob recorded the pivotal album "Geronimo's Cadillac". They moved back to Texas in '71 where they joined as the Cosmic Cowboy movement that formed the basis of
the Austin sound which bloomed into the mega-industry and culture.

Bob was a co-founder (with Gary P. Nunn and various friends) of the Lost Gonzo Band which played with Murphey, Ray Wylie Hubbard, occasionally with Willie and others, but mostly as the road band for Jerry Jeff Walker. Through the years, Bob played on 17 Jerry Jeff records, including the seminal "Viva Terlingua" in '73. The Lost Gonzo Band cut three records in the '70s; Rolling Stone Magazine said the group's self-titled debut was one of the best records to ever come out of Austin. Three more albums were issued in the '90s as the Gonzos became the phoenix band that Austin won't let die. (They still gather on occasion.)

Among Bob's own recordings is the wonderful "Mahatma Gandhi & Sitting Bull" (produced in 2003 by Lloyd Maines). It was one of the year's 10 best country/Americana CDs of the year, according to the Austin American-Statesman, ranking it with albums from Johnny Cash, Lucinda Williams and Lyle Lovett. The song "Original Spirit," from Bob's album, "might be the year's loveliest song," the newspaper says.

History and discs aside, Bob is an exceptional songwriter and performer. From the very first strum of his guitar and the initial melodious lyrics from his buttery voice, you'll know you came to the right place. You'll be fascinated, if not mesmerized, with Bob's charm as he weaves tales of his interesting life among his latest material and the sing-along classics he recorded during our youth.

Audio Interview: Bob Livinston with Doug Jayne of KRCB

Geronimo's Cadillac	Interview Part 1
Up Against The Wall, Redneck Mothers	Interview Part 2
LA Freeway	Interview Part 3
Cowboys & Indians	Interview Part 4

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Interview With Bob....

East meets Western at Chouse tonight Norman (Okla.)

Transcript
http://www.normantranscript.com/archivesearch/local_story_155013355
Editor's Note: I spoke recently with Bob Livingston, legendary Austin-based folk/acoustic musician and founding member of the Lost Gonzo Band. Livingston will play a gig with Susan Herndon and Terry Ware tonight at the Chouse, 717 W. Boyd St.

Pop: Is there a particular musician or band you credit with inspiring you to pursue a life in music?

Bob Livingston: Oh God, what a question. There's several of them that I could credit as influences. My brother Donald was a musician. He was a musician playing in several bands in Lubbock at the time. It was kind of a redneck town but still there was a lot of music there, a lot going on. I moved to Lubbock in 1959, just after Buddy Holly died. He died in June and we moved there in January. ...

At the time there were just a few good music stations there. One I listened to a lot was KOMA. It's kind of funny considering how much I ended up playing in Oklahoma. The other was Wolfman Jack out of Mexico playing black music and R&B. I got into all the black singers, Otis Redding and ... James Brown.

If you had that kind of music you could survive in the vacuum of Lubbock and I did. I had that to fall back on. Of course, Bob Dylan was a big influence.

One can look back on your life, on the seminal moments and just be blown away ...

I left Lubbock in 1969 after receiving a good draft number. I was going to Texas Tech for student deferment ... Michael Murphey and Ray Wylie Hubbard were playing in a band called Three Faces West and I realized these are just some great musicians, making great music ... one of those was Michael Murphey. He had written 'Wildfire' by then and I remember hearing it and thinking it was just a great song.

I went out to Los Angeles, got a record deal and I picked up a hitchhiker. Turned out he worked on Murphey's cars and that's how I met him.
So me and Michael Murphey, we linked up and ... my record deal fell through and so did his and we went back to Texas and met a record producer named Bob Johnston.

(He produced 'Highway 61 Revisited' ... 'Blonde on Blonde,' 'Folsom Prison Blues Live in Prison,' 'Sound of Silence' and he did a lot of work with Leonard Cohen. He's just a huge talent in producing. He could hear one line from a song and be like, 'That's the most beautiful song I've ever heard' and go with it from there. He's got quite an impressive resume. And he's alive and well. We're talking about doing a sequel to 'Cosmic Cowboy' soon.)

And he heard 'Wildfire' and said 'This is an amazing song' and so it went from there and he produced us. That was the first nationally produced record that I played on, that was 'Cadillac' and it was a whole new experience for me, at 21, to be doing this.

I'd never played with a drummer before, that was kind of a folkie thing ... The Lost Gonzo Band, we formed that. That was through Jerry Jeff (Walker)'s company, AMA, as well.

We played in Oklahoma a lot. Played in Norman a lot.

Pop: How was it touring through 17 countries in Asia and Africa on behalf of the State Department?

BL: I got a deal with working for the U.S. State Department in a cultural exchange and about every couple of years I'd wind up somewhere else. That inspired me a lot, those influences from those foreign styles and ideas, especially India. That formed the basis for a lot of my newer songs. So your tax dollars paid for me to go see those other countries. Your taxes at work.

Now that Obama's in office they're trying to build that back up, that program. That's actually a big weapon in our nation's arsenal when it comes to winning the hearts and minds of the people of another nation.

In the '50s and '60s when the U.S. and Russia had the Cold War going on, as part of that there was a culture war, a battle for the hearts and minds of these different countries. Russia would send the Bolshoi Ballet somewhere and then the U.S. would send the National Philharmonic and they'd duke it out, have these culture wars.

But when I visited all these countries, what I was doing, they never knew much about that, had never heard that kind of music. So I sort of gave them a history of Western music, of country. Yes, I performed a lot of my own songs but I familiarized them with a lot of others, other songs and artists, as well. ... And I also combined influences, experimented. I started playing 'country and eastern,' I'd like to say, or 'ragabilly.' Tablas, guitars and all that. It was so much fun I can't tell you.

Out of that, my record came out in 2004, 'Mahatma Gandhi and Sitting Bull.'... My new one that I've got out now is 'Original Spirit.' It's got all of that record in its entirety and some new songs besides. That's what I'm trying to promote now. But my music, it's still really folky and, I like to say, troubador-based.

Pop: Have you performed before with anyone you're playing with tonight?

BL: I've played a few gigs with Susan Herndon. She's really helped me. It's actually through her that I got this Chouse gig. She set it up.
I played a couple of other shows with her in Oklahoma a couple months ago and it was really fun.

Before recently, I've never played in Oklahoma by myself. I did play up there with Jerry Jeff and Ray Wylie Hubbard years and years ago, but I never played up there by myself and I love it.

Pop: I realize your catalog is vast, but is there a song you'd pick as your favorite to perform live?

BL: I always start out with this song I've got called 'Original Spirit.' It's got a great groove to it. It sort of locks me into a mood. I look down and the audience is usually tapping their toes. It gets them into it. It's got the grooves but it also has the lyrics. It says, 'She lives down South where the River's age/ Goes back to the Original Spirit/ And the India ink's flowing over the page/ Down to the original spirit.'

I would say if I have to pick one song that one is one I know I'm going to perform, but I have so many that I like. I have another one called 'Cowboys and Indians' that I really like to perform. At the end there's that part where (on the studio version) they're going 'Oh, oh, oh ...' and a lot of times when I do it live the audience sort of gets going into doing something like that.

Pop: What is the key element to having a great live show?

BL: One of the things I do in my show is I tell a lot of stories. I was part of that cosmic cowboy revolution with Jerry Jeff and all that.

I do a lot of songs like 'London Homesick Blues' where I didn't write it but I do know the story behind it. I knew where Gary Nunn's head was. He goes over to Europe and they have one of their worst winters in 20 years and he's singing 'I wish they'd turn the heat on,' and he comes from that one song to be able to write one of the seminal Texas anthems.

I sort of give everybody some of the context, the background to things like that and it's something a lot of them really love to find out.

Also, multiple instruments help too. I do guitar and harmonica and a few instruments up on a rack. There's also me doing an instrument called a porchboard bass. It puts out a really big sound, a deep grooving sound. I've heard from a lot of people I sound like a whole band, not just one guy, and that's a good thing when it's just you on stage. You need all you can to sort of fill that space up with as much sound as you can.

I was a bass player for Jerry Jeff and Murphey. My guitar style is grooving. I come out of that, being mindful of the beat. I just throw that open and have them, the audience, dance as much as possible. I just sort of am available to the audience. You have to meet them halfway. Tell some of the stories that happened behind the songs you're singing.

I'm not about nostalgia. Still, those stories, about how I got a good draft number -- I was first -- and got out of town. I played on four nationally released records with Jerry Jeff and Murphey. It all happened quick. I like to remember it and a lot of people like to know about it.

Ppp: What projects are you working on now?

BL: I'm making songs for a new record to come out by the first of September. That's my target date.