Riff: Bob Livingston, country music gamechanger If Bob Livingston doesn’t top your list of Texas music luminaries and genre game changers, set his name in stone next to Willie, Waylon, Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey, Ray Wiley Hubbard, Gary P. Nunn and the other Cosmic Cowboys who ushered in America’s progressive country music scene.
At 74, this singer- songwriter musician is at the top of his game with an astonishing list of accomplishments behind him. According to Wikipedia, he has “toured without stop for 47 years” making him one of the “most experienced and world-traveled musicians in all of Texas music.”
He is a member of the Texas Music Legends Hall of Fame, the West Texas Music Walk of Fame, and, since 1987, has served as an ambassador of American music sponsored by the U.S. State Department. His work as a Texas music ambassador has taken him repeatedly to more than 25 different countries like Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Syria, Kuwait, Qatar, India and Pakistan. In 2000, he created Texas Music International with the purpose of bringing together the different “musics” of the world. The man is a giant of the genre.
His recent performance with lead guitar axeman Bradley Kopp at the Bugle Boy in La Grange, was a masterful tour de force. Not only did he bring his listeners into the heady days of ’72 when the Austin music scene blew up the overproduced Nashville country formula, he drew his audience through the seasons of his career with stories and songs that ended with an astonishing rap, drawn wordfor- word from Chaucer’s prologue of the Canterbury Tales.
Bob was a key figure in the progressive country movement in Austin. In 1972, he was a founding member of the country rock entity, The Lost Gonzo Band, with Gary P. Nunn and four other members. The only way to appreciate his role is to provide some essential backstory.
According to Texas Monthly writer John Spong, who wrote an article in April 2012 called “Outlaw Country,” the genre started to take shape in 1970. “Austin’s Armadillo World Headquarters,” he wrote, “is the place where owner Eddie Wilson alternated country and rock music shows.” It served as an important crucible for the new sound.
From there, a 1972 concert at the Hurlburt Ranch in Dripping Springs called the “Dripping Springs Reunion,” helped the movement gel despite the fact that half of the musical lineup were traditional country legends like Loretta Lynn, Buck Owens and Roy Acuff. The other half included the likes of Willie, who turned his back on Nashville that year, Waylon, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver and others.
Bob came to Austin in 1971 from Lubbock, where he told the Bugle Boy listeners that his English teacher, Miss Honey, allowed him to sit in the desk once occupied by Buddy Holly. He said it was a tremendously “vibey desk” that offered up deep insights about how to deliver a line that girls might appreciate. He’d already proved to himself that saying, “You’re gonna give your love to me” was about as useful as a screen door on a submarine. But if you sang it Buddy Holly style, which he did for the audience, “I’m gonna tell you how it’s gonna be, Ooobop, wop-bop-bop,” You’re gonna give your love to me,” the chances of making a good impression rose astronomically. Perhaps the greatest insight the desk of Buddy Holly offered, he said, “was to get out of Lubbock.”
And so, the evening began with this consummate storyteller and performer at the controls of a time machine poised to take on anyone who wanted to ride along.
Tune in next week for part two of “Bob Livingston, country music gamechanger.”
Roam: La Grange This week’s roam took me to La Grange, about 90 minutes from Wimberley heading east. My destination was the Bugle Boy listening room, where I had a ticket to hear music legend Bob Livingston perform. I roamed the area around the downtown square with its beautiful Fayette County Courthouse and the nearby Visitor’s Center located in the Casino Hall. I cruised the strip along TX Business 71 and drove out to the Fayette County Fairgrounds in search of the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center.
The small town, with a population of less than 5,000, lacks a truly vibrant central area, fractured by highways and development away from the town square, despite a 27-year investment in the Texas Main Street program and the handsome Texas Quilt Museum.
Of course, the legend of “the chicken ranch” brothel spices the town lore with stories about Miss Edna, who accepted gifts of chickens in return for the services her ladies provided during the dark days of the depression. Add that to the anthemic, “La Grange” song by ZZ Top, and the town legend persists while the reality waits for better days.
At the Czech Heritage Center I was surprised to learn the impact made by Czech immigrants to the area. So significant is their legacy, that Texas has the largest concentration of Czech immigrants than any other place in the U.S. They are responsible for the painted churches in Schulenburg, the accordion sound in Tejano music, the central Texas polka culture, as well as the kolache and the klobasnek (“kolaches” with sausages) that Texans consume by the boatload.
Most came from the mountainous region of Moravia, where the land was poor and where making a good living was nearly impossible.
The Czech Center, with its genealogy library, museum and ballroom in the main building, is a grouping of ten historic buildings right next to the Fayette County Fairgrounds. Also on the grounds is a 5,500-squarefoot amphitheater where an annual performance of Czech music called Muziky is held. I came away with a sack full of information about these hardworking people who loved community and longed for the freedoms that America offered. I also learned that their country produced several prominent citizens: Sigmund Freud, Oskar Schindler, Franz Kafka, geneticist Gregor Mendel, the composer Antonin Dvorak, as well as Miloš Forman, who directed Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and tennis player, Martina Navratilova. Before leaving, I thanked Center manager Mark Hermes, for his friendly and generous tour and signed up to receive the Texas Polka News. I want to return in October for the annual Heritage Fest.
Rave: The Bugle Boy If the Bugle Boy in La Grange isn’t on your performing venue radar, now’s the time to put it there. A non-profit organization, it is supported by people who love what they do. Their mission is captured in their tagline, “Elevating and Sustaining Original Live Music.”
A quick sweep of the posters in their lobby heralded performances by Sue Foley, Ruthie Foster, Alejandro Escovedo, and other Texas music legends. Photos of this listening room do not capture the essence of this small jewel. It is a renovated WWII army hangar, that doesn’t cast much of a spell from the road, but inside, it glitters with
a scrubbed stage backed by a scarlet curtain, pro lighting, streaming and sound systems, and comfy theater-style seats. A bar with beer and wine, teas and other refreshments, including root beer floats, is staffed by friendly volunteers and board members.
Its excellence resides in the music legends they book and the respect they show them. Responsible for those bookings is San Marcos resident and talent coordinator, Richard Skanse, writer and former editor of Lone Star Music, Lone Star Music Magazine, and Texas Music Magazine, who is also a music critic and sometime Rolling Stone magazine writer.
For more information about the Bugle Boy listening room, visit their website at thebugleboy.org.
