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.