Submitted by Don Graham
Ever hear of Bob Livingston? No? Yeah. Wait! I think so. It’s the degrees of separation that once brought to your attention bring Bob Livingston into clear focus. With names like Michael Martin Murphy, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Gary P. Nunn as associates on his resume, all Texas music legends, his place in Americana music history is cemented. And all of the aforementioned are proud to include Bob Livingston in their resumes. In fact, it was Bob who put the Wylie in Ray Wylie Hubbard and the P in Gary P Nunn. “ At the end of a Jerry Jeff Walker recording, I said ‘Ray Wylie Hubbard and Gary P Nunn’. Now Wylie was Ray’s middle name and Gary’s was Phillip hence the P, but from that moment on that was their identities.” Also, it was Bob who was responsible for Jerry Jeff recording Ray’s 'Redneck Mother'. Jerry Jeff broke a string while playing with Bob at the Broken Spoke and said to Bob ‘ sing them a song Bob’ and Bob sang Redneck Mother that he’d heard when Ray wrote it in Red River, New Mexico. And Bob is still working and entertaining audiences around the world and sounding better than ever with a full live schedule and a new album Up TheFlatland Stairs hitting the shelves this year. But let’s start at the beginning and tell the tale of the Cosmic Cowboy to this point in time.