South Austin Song Circles: Vanessa Lively, Ben Bedford, Raina Rose, Bob Livingston with guest Tucker
Vanessa Lively is an eclectic, bilingual songwriter and nonprofit founder who brings passion and fire to her heart-centric writing style and way of living. Margaret Moser of The Austin Chronicle describes Vanessa’s music as “folk music on fire with worldly rhythms and a Latin pulse.” Her latest album Truth Is has been listed as a #1 New Release by Kansas Public Radio, #13 on the FAI Folk Radio charts, a #1 New Release by Crossroads Radio in the Netherlands, and named one of the Top Albums of 2022 by Tom Coxworth - Folk Routes (Alberta, Canada).
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Ben Bedford is a singer-songwriter, composer, and visual artist.
In July of 2010, Bedford was named one of the “50 most significant Folk singer-songwriters of the past 50 years” by Rich Warren of WFMT-Chicago. The list also included Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Anais Mitchell, Joni Mitchell, and Danny Schmidt. In May of 2018, Bedford was named one of the six Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk winners at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. He has toured extensively over the past 15 years in North America and western Europe. In January of 2023, he released his sixth studio album, Valley Of Stars, engineered and mixed by David Sinko (Yo-Yo Ma, Punch Brothers, Edgar Meyer) and featuring Ethan Jodziewicz (Aoife O’Donovan, Maya de Vitry, Milk Carton Kids) on bass, Chas Williams (Nanci Griffith) on second guitar, and Kari Floyd on harmony vocals. With his visual art, Ben works in pen and ink and watercolor. Bedford is a member of Perspectives Art Gallery in Petersburg, Illinois.
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As the second daughter of a country music historian and a Jewish poet, Americana musician and songwriter Raina Rose revels in sharing with you her beautifully twisted, yet refreshingly optimistic perspective on the world. Her unique voice and exceptional guitar playing transcend age, gender, generation, and even catch the ears of those who aren't typically into acoustic guitar-driven songwriting. With a naturalist's eye, an artist's pen, and a lion's attack, Raina lays everything she has on the line; she makes you feel as if she's your best friend whispering a honeysuckle-sweet secret in your ear, warmly inviting you into a joyfully intimate and darkly candid conversation. It's that ability to forge her own path in the world of music that sets Raina apart from her contemporaries, and her “no holds barred, lay it on the line” brand of Americana that secures Raina’s place in music history as more than a mere footnote or a passing trend.
Born in Reagan-era Los Angeles, Raina moved to Portland, OR with her family in 1988. Growing up in a house alive with ‘60s pop and good ole' fashioned country music, Raina was given a guitar at age eleven and sent around the corner for lessons. By the time she hit high school—attending the same school as Elliott Smith and Matt Groening—Raina more often than not shined classes to write heart-wrenching teenage love songs in Portland's lush, green public parks. Upon graduating, Raina moved to the Oregon coast and taught environmental science to youngsters while basking in the majestic silence of 500 acres of ancient forest and foggy beachfront. It was the blissful solitude of this Thoreau-ian lifestyle that made Raina realize she wanted to make music for people, to sing for a living.
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Singer-songwriter Bob Livingston is a folk-rock raconteur who doesn't mind being called an "entertainer."
"The hand of fate plays a big part in all of this," Livingston says. Through serendipity and the art leaping and the net appearing more often than not, Livingston landed in Austin in 1971. He came to Austin with Michael Martin Murphey after playing bass on Murphey's Geronimo's Cadillac album. In Austin, Livingston, reinvented himself as the Lost Gonzo Band bass-player/singer who toured and recorded with visionary misfits like Jerry Jeff Walker, Murphey, the Lost Gonzo Band and Ray Wylie Hubbard. They called it the 'progressive country scare!'"
Livingston has seen a lot of the world since growing up in musically fertile West Texas. Hailing originally from San Antonio, Bob moved to Lubbock as a boy where his interests turned more 'Cosmic' than 'Cowboy' and prompted him to delve into the music and mysteries of many cultures. Traveling since the 80’s as a Music Ambassador for the US State Department, Livingston has taken Texas music as far afield as India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Africa, Vietnam and the Middle East demonstrating again and again the unique power that music has to build bridges between peoples of the world. As Livingston says, 'When all else fails, music prevails'. These tours earned him the honor of being appointed, “Ambassador of Goodwill,” by the State of Texas and “Austin’s International Music Ambassador,” by the City of Austin. Bob was inducted into the "West Texas Walk of Fame" in 2018 and the "Texas Music Legends Hall Of Fame" in 2016.
This world-traveled view was reflected in Livingston's 2004 release, Mahatma Gandhi & Sitting Bull (AKA Original Spirit), a romp through the music and lore of both east and west. Next up was Gypsy Alibi which was named Album of the Year by the Texas Music Awards in 2011. 2018's Up The Flatland Stairs drew a great review from COWBOYS & INDIANS MAGAZINE. "Each facet of Up the Flatland Stairs glimmers as an authentic dimension of Livingston’s singular aesthetic. He’s cerebral and a little bit feral, evoking the kind of characters you’d spot shuffling through the Louvre in snakeskin boots or reciting lines from Kafka to a redbone coonhound.” Ha!
Livingston plays over 100 shows a year: house concerts, private parties, folk clubs and festivals. He is the Artistic Director for a multi-cultural group from Texas and India called Cowboys & Indians. Cosmic Bob is also playing with new rockin' the Lost Gonzo Band and the Gonzo Compadres and is touring non-stop in support of, Up The Flatland Stairs.
Livingston is singer-songwriter and a master raconteur who captures his audience from the first notes played. It's an irresistible invitation to travel down the musical roads where his rambles have taken him over the years. What country? That is the question.”
