Robert A. Kraft has been a fixture in the Austin music scene since the late 1980s when he arrived here with his band The Ken. The grungy power trio played all the Alternative Rock clubs on the Austin/Dallas/Houston/San Antonio circuit, opening for such acts as Sound Garden, Blues Traveler, Joe Rockhead, Big Car, and more. The Ken got into rotation at Z102 with their song Hunter’s Moon, and they were often featured on KLBJ’s Local Licks.
In the early 90s, Robert began a long collaboration with Glover Gill, of 8 ½ Souvenirs, holding down Wednesday Happy Hours at the venerable Continental Club as a piano/vocal duo, and performing and recording original Tango music with Glover’s 8-piece orchestra, Tosca, heard in venues and on the airwaves across Texas and The World.
The Robert Kraft Trio began an 8-year residency at the Continental Club Gallery in 2011, and in 2017, they released North Bishop Ave – a collection of Soul and R&B inspired original tunes that were an homage to Robert’s time living in the pre-gentrified Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff, in Dallas, as a teen, and the music filled the air in those years.
Robert A. Kraft has re-issued North Bishop Ave under his current name, with two bonus features; a new tune entitled Jellyglass Lemonade, and a re-record of his protest anthem Stand, which he wrote at Standing Rock in the Dakotas during the 2016 upheaval there.
He is in the process of recording another full length album entitled Soul 73 at Cedar Creek Studio in Austin, due for release in the Fall of 2023.
Jellyglass Lemonade is a bonus track on this latest re-issue. Heavily influenced by the artists Robert was listening to as a teenager – Brenton Wood, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder, etc – it is a loving treatment of the power of memory and the odd little things that stand out as we look back in time toward the ones we loved.
Stand is a re-do of a tune from the original release, with some beefed-up instrumentation and featuring the searing guitar work of Austin’s Bradley Stivers. It is a song about being and Ally to marginalized groups, and the importance of listening before you act or speak out.