Doug Livingston - Southwest Portals

Sounds of the southwest - an alchemy of strings, picks, and pedals featuring guitarist Bruce Lofgren and pedal steel guitarist Doug Livingston, along with bassist Mike Flick and drummer Jack LeCompte. "Southwest Portals" gives the setting and also suggests the third stream nature of the musical directions. Using the simple, earthy instruments associated with the region, and accessible compositions, the group invites the listener through unexpected doorways to discover new meanings. The music itself has firm foundations, but implications that reach stylistically into jazz, pop, new-age, even classical. Bruce Lofgren (guitar/ composer/ producer) has produced seven CDs as leader. The six others include three small group and three jazz orchestra CDs. Bruce has written for (or played with): Buddy Rich, Keith Emerson, Airto and Flora Purim, Ray Anthony, Donna Summer, Ken Loggins, The Spiral Starecase, Jim Messina, Toni Rizzi, Teri DeSario / Casey, Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (theme music from Carson's Comedy Classics). Pedal steel artist Doug Livingston (aka Ernest Bovine), is a multi-instrumentalist who doubles piano, pedal steel, guitar, tuba, trumpet, sax, accordion and bassoon. Some of his credits include: Olivia Newton John, Donna Summer, Loggins / Messina, The Swingin' Armani Brothers, The Glenn Frey Band. TV credits: Dukes of Hazard, American Idol band, Tonight Show, and the Grammies. Originally from Indiana, he holds a degree in Physics from the University of Michigan. Acoustic bassist Mike Flick is originally from Las Vegas, and grew up in the Bay Area. He has done extensive big band work on upright bass: the Buddy Childers Band, and the ghost bands of Glen Miller, Harry James, and Jimmy Dorsey. Drummer and percussionist Jack LeCompte, originally from Philly, has played with and/or recorded with Anita O'Day, the Les Brown Big Band, Stevie Wonder, Bette Midler and Natalie Cole. His TV work includes 'Bird, The Charlie Parker Story' and Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

1) Away West
2) Echoes of the Grassland
3) Coronado's Dream
4) Days of August
5) Desert Flower
6) Summer Passage
7) Arc Ngel
8) Wind and Sand
9) Prairie Fugue