LIVINGSTON, NEIL

Homebase: Spokane, WA.
Stats: 1935...
Misc Notes:  Livingston wrote this biographical bit and posted it online: "A distant cousin played the steel guitar and in 1948 their dance band held a rehearsal at our home. I fell in love with the sound of a steel guitar. I was thirteen at the time. I did not get a chance to learn the “steel” until I was seventeen and able to purchase one because of my job at Western Union."

His former teacher, Wes Hamshaw, posted this message online in 2004: "Back in the early 50's, I was teaching steel guitar in a local Spokane music store and Neil was one of my beginning students. He was the only student (there may have been others) that played better than his teacher after only three lessons. It was obvious that he had something special. ... This was at Thue / Blessing music store in Spokane. I have the feeling that he was less than impressed with the lessons but he really didn't need lessons anyway - a real talent like his can pick it up on his own."

Livingston: "In early 1953 I began to play professionally in night clubs and saloons." Meanwhile, my younger brother, Ronald, learned the standard guitar ... [and] we formed a family dance band." The Stringdusters,were soon playing at county fairs, rodeos, and grange hall dances. In a 1990 interview with Frank Delaney, Livingston recalled that the times were changing: “The granges were dances that involved the whole family. Grandfather and grandmother came and the children and the grandchildren. Rock-and-roll kind of broke that up because the young folks wanted all rock-and-roll and the old people wanted no rock-and-roll. That kind of moved the bands into the night clubs out of the grange halls.”

In 1956 Livingston traveled to Shreevesport, Louisiana, where he joined the house band for the Louisiana Hayride show, playing with such stars as Johnny Horton, Carl Perkins an many others. In time he returned to Spokane and the Livingston brothers scored a gig in Coeur D' Alene, Idaho at the rowdy Lariat nightclub, and they brought aboard a local musician named Charlie Ryan to play bass. Before long Ryan taught the guys his original song, "Hot Rod Lincoln" which their crowds instantly loved. Inspired to record it, they went to the Sound Recording Company over in Spokane, and a single was released by the local Souvenir record company as credited to "Charley Ryan and the Livingston Bros." A local hit, the record was eventually licensed by a big California-based label, 4-Star Records -- and re-released on a single credited to "Charlie Ryan and the Timberline Riders" -- and by the summer of 1960 it was a national radio hit.

In 1961, Livingston wrote and recorded a steel guitar instrumental entitled, "Steel Rock" which reportedly sold over 100,000 copies. He went on to perform with many other stars including Jim Reeves, Charlie Walker, and Mel Tillis. The book Buck Owens: A Biography mentions that when Owens and his new sidekick Don Rich began playing around as a duo in the late 1950s, they were backed by the Livingston brothers,  for two weeks of shows. In 1972 Livingston contributed to Frank Starr's You Can't Disguise Religion album, which also featured the Wilson-McKinley Band. Both of the Livingston brothers went on to years of playing gospel music.

ALSO SEE:
1.) STARR, FRANK  (Starr #100)

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