THREE BOB LIVINGSTON BANDS Bands to look for...
Cowboys & Indians
You may think you know what veteran Texas musician Bob Livingston is up to, but COWBOYS & INDIANS defies expectations at every turn. Unlike the children’s game, these cowboys and Indians are allies, not enemies, and the Indians come from India, not the Wild West. Livingston got the idea for the group while he was in India for a U.S. State Department cultural exchange tour. Local musicians, using their indigenous instruments, sat in almost every night. Everyone mixed themes, influences, rhythms, instrumentation, and insights from both East and West. They played songs & yodels from Texas and ragas & chants from India.
A newspaper in New Delhi called it “country and eastern music” and the International Herald Tribune said, “The Wild East!”
Inspired by these experiences, Livingston wanted to take the sounds and charm of the Indian shows back to Texas. He got together with an old songwriting friend, Bobby Bridger and they wrote new songs and tossed around ideas for a show in Texas schools and theaters. The concept for COWBOYS & INDIANS began to take shape and some great musicians, drawn from the vibrant Austin international musical community, joined up.
The COWBOYS & INDIANS play in theaters, clubs, schools and other venues throughout Texas. "This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department." Over 45,000 students in Texas have seen the show. Livingston and Bridger are developing the show into a full fledged musical and plan to present it sometime in 2020 at a local Austin theater. This unique combination of eastern & western music and lore is a cultural sharing experience: guitars and sitars, incense and cactus, boots & bare feet, Mahatma Gandhi & Sitting Bull meet Buddy Holly & Ravi Shankar!
Lost Gonzo Band
The legendary Lost Gonzo Band was founded in 1973 and toured and recorded with many of Texas' most colorful musicians including Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey, and Ray Wylie Hubbard. 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.
The Lost Gonzo Band released three albums in the 1970s: Lost Gonzo Band(1976) and Thrills (1977) on MCA Records, and Signs of Life (1977) on Capitol Records. The band appeared on the PBS program Austin City Limits in 1976, 1978 and 1986. In the 1990s, the band recorded two CDs for Vireo Records:Rendezvous in 1992 and Hands of Time in 1995. Demon Records, a company based in England, released a compilation CD of the first two MCA records entitled, Dead Armadillos in 1998.
All of the members of the original band still have active music careers and occasionally reunite for concerts. They have recently played the Kerrville Folk Festival, Dosey Doe's Coffee House (Houston), the Saxon Pub (Austin) and the Manship Theater (Baton Rouge, LA). Their most recent show was at the Nacona Nights Music Festival in 2014. On January 8, 2012, the Lost Gonzo Band played at the "Music Fest" in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a Texas-themed music festival featuring over 40 bands over a five-day period. The Lost Gonzo Band was honored as the festival's "Tribute Artists" and the January 8th program included many of the festival's bands playing Lost Gonzo Band songs.
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