The Cosmic Cowboy Returns

Bob is a showman to the nth degree, weaving songs peppered with outrageous stories that include real life characters such as -- 'the current governor of California.' The stories are so good and he tells them so well that you want to believe every word.  He tells a story about picking up a German-Austraian hitchhiker on a dirt road in Los Angeles (that should be the first clue to his b.s. abilities). The hitch-hiker said he knew only one other Texan, and his name was Michael Murphy.  The guy turns out to be Arnold 'The Terminator' S. and Michael Martin Murphy becomes one of Bob's best buds in L.A. Which parts of the story are true? Does it matter? He ends the story with a M.M.M.  tune he wrote when they left California together and headed back to the Lone Star State.

Every one of his songs has a back story, rich with the history that only  someone like Bob, or Willie, or Ray Wiley Hubbard can have.  Speaking of Ray, Bob's got a great story about playing Ray's song Redneck Mother before some of Jerry Jeff Walker's shows. Of course, Jerry Jeff appropriated the song and made it his own on the classic Viva Terlingua album on which Bob played  - being one of the Lost Gonzos and all.  Bob's version of Redneck Mother is particularly palatable, considering the tired legs on that 'ol dawg.

I'll quit giving away all of Bob's stage secrets, after I mention a couple of more things.  His rendition of fellow Gonzo-ian, Gary P. Nunn's London Homesick Blues really brings that old song back to life too.  Although, if you head down to College Station, you'll notice that in the cowboy college circuit most of these Texas staples never get tired and will never die. It's like Ground Hog Day with booze and honkey tonks, some of these old Texas staples. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, I'm just glad I escaped College Station when I did and got to Austin as quick as I could.

 I should have known that a Musical Ambassador from the U.S. State Department would not disappoint near the end of the set, especially since he played practically the same set last year and the same thing happened to me. I sat down with my camera and thought to myself, "I've got plenty of pictures of Bob. I don't need anymore photographs." Then he starts with the hilarious dead pan stories that make you think they're true, he tells tales of swapping tunes and stories with musicians all over the world on our tax dollars, and then the doozie comes.  That's when I realize this whole time I should have had the Flip video, not the camera.  Because when Bob Livingston raps a scene from the Canterbury Tales in Middle English -- that's right! -- MIDDLE ENGLISH - you know it's one of the most outrageous things you've ever heard. Then you wonder, maybe that German-Austrian hitch-hiker on a dirt road in L.A. WAS Arnold.

Bruce & Scrappy Jud this weekend at the Ranch

There's an old joke in Austin that I remember lovingly from my college days there.  It goes, "What do you call a musician who just broke up with his girlfriend?"  In Austin, you can't toss a pebble without hitting a musician or his/her guitar as they are walking down the street to their next gig. The joke implies the itinerant lifestyle and other less desirable traits of the tried and true musician.

So what do you call a musician that just broke up with his girlfriend, or boyfriend? Homeless.

The only reason Bruce Hughes and Scrappy Jud are homeless is because they are always on the road.  Bruce with Jason Mraz last year on his world tour and Scrappy Jud with everybody else.  For the last so many years they've been part of The Resentments, a South Austin super-group founded by the late Stephen Bruton.  No Depression magazine once said of the Resentments, "comparisons to everyone from Crosby, Stills, & Nash, to the Traveling Wilburys, the Texas Tornado, the official and unofficial versions of the Outlaws, and The Band can be justified."  The group that started out as a few musicians playing for the love of their craft became an Austin Sunday night staple.

Last May, Bob Livingston, singer-songwriter and Music Ambassador for the US State Department (no joke), played a show here at the Ranch and then stuck around for a few days to write songs and relax.  I found him one morning at the piano playing a melancholy tune.  "I've got to cut my visit short, get back to Austin," he said, "Stephen Bruton died today."  I searched my memory and it's limited knowledge of musicology for a Stephen Bruton. The name did not ring a bell.  If it rings a bell with you then I do not need to tell you the influence his life and his music made on cinema this year with the movie Crazy Heart.

This weekend -- Easter weekend --Bruce and Scrappy Jud will be here at the Ranch filling the Great Room with sumptuous melodies, musical notes will surely drift, like freed balloons, into the heavens and soothe the ears of angels and maybe even an old bandmate or two.  With Stephen gone, the Saxon Pub's Sunday night house band  may be feeling a little homeless.  Oh, that their music this weekend might mend the hearts of many a girlfriend who had to put up with lesser musicians.

Dana Cooper - Hearing the songwriter's songwriter

I must admit, when a very excited Jimmy Baldwin called to tell me that he had booked Dana Cooper to play at the Ranch on March 13th I had no idea who he was talking about or why he was so excited.  So I Googled him -- signed with Electra Records in 1973 ( I was 3 years old!), critic favorite, outsider in the record industry, "the songwriter's songwriter."  Well that explained to me why Jimmy had heard of him and I had not. He's one of those guys that other songwriter's sit around in awe of saying things like, "Man, I wish I'd written that song," or "Hey Dana, what's the tuning on that guitar?"

Last night about four songs into the first set a local musician on the first row shouted out, "What's the tuning on that Gibson?" The analytical geek in me relished in hearing the words, "It's a D# with a C back."  At least that's what I heard, and I loved it!  All this talk of chords and sharps and flats, minute technical details of projection and movement, finger-picking only rivaled in highest backwoods of Appalachian Bluegrass.  Dana's music is mesmerizing cocktail of words and songs played to a voice, a sweet sweet voice of melodic purity.

Funny what a little sun can do...

Frosty crisp mornings are melting into warm sunrises. The lone squirrel out here on the cliff braves the birdseed on the porch.  I say braves because the dogs keep their one opened eye on him from the porch and the cats watch from the roof. He must be starved amidst the cactus and the rocky outcrops in the ground.

Jack mentioned that THIS SUNDAY is daylight savings time.  I love it! Two weeks ago  we were buried under a think patch of snow. It felt like winter would go on forever.  Indeed there is still a chill or two left in the air.  In three day's time the evenings will become noticeably longer as the sun makes it's toward longer days.

We've got a great spring line up of musicians, retreats, and events at the ranch.  Lot's of time to relax and space to grow roots and create beautiful stories, poems, and songs with vibrant imagination.  Don't be surprised if our squirrel pops up again.  He's tenacious.  He knows how to get what he want's.  He doesn't fear those who want to see him dead. And he doesn't take "No" for an answer.  Hmm.  He sounds like a great teacher.  Maybe even a master teacher.   I'll likely be out on the porch a lot this spring learning from this Master.

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New Year's Zen

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Art Ranch Acoustic -- Chris Stern

 

Last night the Art Ranch was transported, Wizard of Oz-style, to the English countryside. The weather matched the mood in the Great Room. Temperatures outside hoovered around 50 degrees. Inside the fireplace burned as Chris Stern played a variety of British and American folk songs, adding his own beautiful tunes between them. The melodic songs set a quiet, relaxed tone, soothing the hearts and souls of the listeners that filled the room.

Many of the songs he sang I did not know personally, except the Simon and Garfunkle standards -- Julio down by the schoolyard, and Scarborough Faire, parsley, sage, etc... The songs I didn't know must be well-known folk or traditional songs in other places besides the states because a South African couple that comes to many of our music nights sang along to most of his songs. I also recognized many other tunes that I've heard in the past but I don't know the titles, only snippets of the lyrics. Even though I'm generally not a folkie and both bored and put to sleep by folksie lullabyes, I enjoyed this show. It gave me great pride that our country does have some songs we all know and share in common -- like the Woody Guthrie and Buddy Holly songs that Bob Livingston sang on Friday night.

I didn't know much about Chris Stern before he showed up. He has Facebook page but no Myspace page. A Google search of him pulls up a very limited and sketchy picture in a day and age where the internet as a medium is so necessary for an independent muscian. When I asked Chris about this issue he said he's just very disorganized. It is clear that he is a muscians musician. He's not into self-promotion or other worldly pursuits. Chris is here for the music. That fact is clear from his stage presence -- a graviational force that pulls the listener closer in. From here Chris headed to Austin and then Wimberly to close out his Texas shows. When he comes back to the states next year from Yorkshire, U.K., he will be on the bill here at the Art Ranch on the Brazos de Dios.