SASC: Bastrop Edition with Robert A. Kraft, Phil Hurley, Susan Lindfors Taylor & Mike Kiddoo
Robert A. Kraft learned to play guitar at age eleven on a four-dollar gut string guitar that his older brother found at a garage sale. He started writing songs around age twelve. By age fifteen he was sneaking out at night to sing and play bars and clubs around downtown Dallas. He has been performing around the USA ever since, and his 2017 release North Bishop Ave. has been spun by radio stations in the US, Europe, the UK, and way down in New Zealand.
Arriving in Austin in 1988 from the Bay Area with his alt rock band The Ken, he moved through various projects over the next few decades- crooning Jazz standards with his long-time collaborator Glover Gill, singing Tangos with the legendary Tosca Tango orchestra (for whom he also wrote and arrange works in Spanish and French), and performing on studio projects for such luminaries as Charlie Sexton and Rosie Flores.
He held down an eight-year Friday residency at the world-famous Continental Club Gallery as The Robert Kraft Trio. He currently writes and records on his small farm near Bastrop, TX, just outside of Austin, and he performs as a solo acoustic artist at clubs and venues all around Central Texas.
In 2023 he founded Bastrop Live Music Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on nurturing the live music scene in Bastrop by funding shows by local and touring artists, and which also provides musical equipment and private instruction for young musicians whose families face financial challenges.
His latest release, 730 kHz, is streaming everywhere, and is an homage to KKDA Soul 73, the Dallas AM radio station that helped shape his earliest musical and vocal sensibilities, and has influenced his music throughout his life.
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Phil Hurley has been playing in bands since he was eight years old. He moved from his hometown of Potsdam, NY to Boston, MA in 1987 with his band Gigolo Aunts. Gigolo Aunts had a major label deal with RCA and toured extensively in the US and Europe with groups such as the Counting Crows, Cranberries, Wallflowers, and The Lemonheads. They recorded music for films including:
That Thing You Do, The River Wild, Swimming With Sharks, The Buddy System, In the Army Now, and the title track to Dumb and Dumber, "Where I Find My Heaven."
Phil Hurley then went on to tour with Tracy Bonham for her platinum record "The Burdens of Being Upright."
After relocating to Seattle, WA, he continued to make music with groups like The Tycoons (Chris Ballew, PUSA), Shuggie, and The Hula Bees. He was one of the first employees at the much-celebrated shop, Emerald City Guitars. Phil Hurley was hand-selected to open the Sky Church at the Experience Music Project. After a brief stint in Amsterdam, Phil Hurley was once again making music – this time in Los Angeles. He performed in the original cast of the hit show Rock of Ages. He worked in sales, and as a guitar specialist at Westwood Music, and as a guitar specialist for James Trussart, developing some of his first demo videos. He wrote the theme songs for HBOs Lucky Louie, The Greg Behrendt Show, and Weeds. He created the celebrated country-rock group Stonehoney with fellow LA singer-songwriters Shawn Davis, Nick Randolph, and Dave Phenicie in 2006. Stonehoney toured extensively across the U.S. and found their musical home when they relocated to Austin, TX in 2009, signing to Jimmy LaFave's Music Road Records.
In Austin, Phil Hurley continued his success playing guitar with Jimmy LaFave, and recording with artists such as Hal Ketchum and Wendi Waldman. He is a founding member of South Austin Moonlighters. The South Austin Moonlighters have released four albums, garnering regional radio and touring success. Phil Hurley released his solo album Nowhere Left To Run, produced by Chris Gage in 2019. His second solo album released in February 2024.
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An active performing songwriter in the ‘90s, Susan Lindfors Taylor played regularly around Texas in listening rooms such as Anderson Fair, Cactus Cafe, Chicago House, Uncle Calvin’s. Her tours farther afield included songwriter rounds at the esteemed Bluebird Cafe (Nashville) and concerts at several New England venues including Caffe Lena (Saratoga Springs), Club Passim (Cambridge), the Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, MA) and Godfrey Daniels (Bethlehem, PA). She has performed on Austin City Limits twice (John Gorka and Eric Taylor) and has also supported and shared stages with Don McLean, John Gorka, Bill Morrissey, Livingston Taylor, Cliff Eberhardt and others. She was a finalist twice in the Telluride Troubadour Contest and once at Rocky Mountain Folks Festival. As she became an established artist on the ‘90s Austin music scene, she and Jimmy LaFave were regular hosts of a popular Monday open mic night in Austin, supporting fellow emerging songwriters such as Diana Jones, Slaid Cleaves and Guy Forsyth.
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Hailing from the land of highways and diners, songsmith Mike Kiddoo left the New Jersey 'burbs in search of his artistic home. He, first, made his way north, earning a degree in writing from Emerson College in Boston, MA. Then in 2010, he and three other graduates blindly boarded a plane to Texas. After a decade of "keeping Austin weird," Kiddoo put his feather boa aside and returned to his roots as an acoustic-strumming singer-songwriter. He found his current home just 30 miles from Austin in the quaint, historic town of Bastrop, TX. While working passionately to grow and nurture the Bastrop music scene, Mike juggles his band KNETX (pronounced kinetics), his duo When Sarah Met Mike (with songstress Sarah Price), and his solo act. Despite his limitations as a juggler, he puts his heart into everything he does. You can expect new releases from all three projects in 2025.
