Still Gonzo After All These Years

Texan Songsmith Bob Livingston Is Bound For Athens, And Beyond

originally published January 10, 2007

Archetypal “cosmic cowboy” Bob Livingston doesn’t hail from L.A. or Nashville or Liverpool. The ever-involved guitarist-songwriter-goodwill ambassador does, however, come from a place with an almost-as-important musical legacy behind it: Lubbock, TX.

Livingston grew up a student of hometown boy-done-good Buddy Holly, and started playing guitar while still in high school. He made the acquaintance of fellow Lubbock songwriters Joe Ely, Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock when they were first starting out as the original Flatlanders. For many years, he backed up outlaw singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker in his Lost Gonzo Band, the most versatile Texan rock/ blues/ country group this side of the Sir Douglas Quintet. He played bass behind Ray Wylie Hubbard and Michael Martin Murphy and even had a hand in arranging the familiar theme song for television’s "Austin City Limits" (“London Homesick Blues” by Lost Gonzo bandmate Gary P. Nunn).

Livingston is also a world traveler and speaker who heads up Texas Music International, a nonprofit educational organization that has seen its curator participate in cultural exchange programs in locales like India and Pakistan. Currently, he’s gearing up for a string of solo appearances followed by another trip across the globe and a subsequent Lost Gonzo Band reunion. Flagpole caught up with Livingston via phone to chat about groovy Texas culture, legendary Austin songwriters, and his upcoming stop in Athens.

Flagpole

What are some of the memories you have of the late ‘60s, early ‘70s music scene in and around Austin? This was when you, the Flatlanders, Doug Sahm and Townes Van Zandt were starting to get some feet in the door.

Bob Livingston

Yeah, some of those guys are a little older than me, and when you’re a kid, those couple of years are everything. I started playing at a club there in town early on and I thought Joe Ely was just the coolest thing - like the Lubbock Dylan. I got a lot from watching him, actually. He would play solo and sit on his amplifier with his mic and guitar plugged in there. Then, he had a hi-hat cymbal and a harmonica, and was like this little one-man band. So, naturally, I had to go down to the pawnshop and get myself a hi-hat, too!

Flagpole

How did you wind up playing with Michael Martin Murphy during those days?

Bob Livingston

Well, I was living in Lubbock and going to tech school when the first draft lottery came along. I ended up getting number 309, left school the day after that and wound up in California.

One day, I’m driving down the freeway and pick up this hitchhiker who says [Livingston assumes a thick Bavarian accent], “Thee only other Texan I knows is from Dallas. He is named Mike Murphy. He is a musician.” I said, “You’re kidding,” because I’d already known Murphy’s songs and had met him through Ray Wylie Hubbard’s old band Three Faces West. The same night I picked up that hitchhiker, Murphy calls me and invites me up.

Sometime after that, my deal with Capitol had fallen through so I ended up playing bass with his band. The week after Murphy was signed to A&M, we packed up and went to Nashville to cut the Geronimo’s Cadillac album. Twenty-five songs in a day.

Flagpole

Where does this figure in with the Lost Gonzo Band pairing up with Jerry Jeff Walker?

Bob Livingston

Jerry Jeff hit town just about the same time Michael and I had moved to Austin, so I was playing with both of ‘em. Then we made the Jerry Jeff album with “Hill Country Rain,” “L.A. Freeway” and a bunch of others on it. It was just a first time for everything then. Geronimo’s Cadillac was, like, the first nationally released record to come out of Austin.

Then, all of a sudden, Jerry Jeff starts recording. Most of us were around 20 years old and couldn’t believe we were out there making records. Eventually, I had to make a decision between the two. I went with Jerry Jeff shortly before we cut the Viva Terlingua album and that’s when the whole place really went stumpy!

Flagpole

You have some close connections to both the theme song from "Austin City Limits" and the program itself. Initially, what kind of impact did that show make on musicians in the area?

Bob Livingston

At that time, it was like a lot of pieces of the puzzle were starting to come together. Willie Nelson had just moved to town and the Armadillo was bringing some of the top acts in the world to Austin. Frank Zappa played there; Bruce Springsteen broke national shortly after playing there. When "Austin City Limits" came along, it was a syndicated show on a PBS channel that everybody with a TV could watch, which meant lots of exposure. It was strictly "Austin City Limits" at that time, too, because everybody on there lived in or had something big to do with Austin.

These days it’s more like "Austin Outer Limits," but still a great program. They still use “London Homesick Blues” after all these years, too. Anywhere we play today with Jerry Jeff is filled with people who love that song and all the old ones like it. We’ll play these thrash rock-type clubs in New York where the soundman will come up and say, “I gotta turn the PA up for you guys louder than any other fuckin’ band! The people are singin’ and screamin’ so fuckin’ loud, I can’t even hear ya!”

Flagpole

Tell us about the work you do with Texas Music International and your travels abroad.

Bob Livingston

We’re a nonprofit organization. We do shows, school programs and things like that. Right now, we’re putting on a benefit show in Austin that’s a benefit to keep a bunch of new condos from being built on Town Lake.

I do a lot of school shows for kids that don’t get a chance to see any music at all. We go in there with this wild group, perform and do a workshop and it just blows their minds. We’re working on a musical play now called Cowboys & Indians which features Indian and Texan musicians collaborating. We’re getting it ready for a trial run to see how things go.

Of all the places I’ve been, India is about the furthest out. When I first got there, I met this guy who was a Fulbright Scholar and had this thing going on with the State Department. He told me that if I could convince the State Department that I was an expert on something, whether it’s hydroponics or country music, I could get a road gig going there. So, I go to talk to the State Department guy who proceeds to pull out a banjo. He smiled and said, “I’ve been waiting for you to walk through that door. You got the gig!”

That was 1985 and, within a few years, I’d gone to Bangladesh, Nepal and other places playing with all these great musicians. My son and I are trying to put together a documentary right now of some of these travels.

Flagpole

Care to give us a preview of your Athens setlist?

Bob Livingston

It’ll be just me, solo. I might get one of these guys around here to come along and back me up. I’m looking forward to playing more down there in the Georgia area. I’ve been doing a lot of solo shows and house concerts lately, so there’s no telling what will happen!

Michael Andrews

WHO: Bob Livingston, Paul Reeves, Gary Pfaff
WHERE: Melting Point
WHEN: Wednesday, January 10, 8 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $5