Where Steve's Playing Children's Concerts Steve's Online Record Store

Song of the Month! An award-winning, toe-tapping tribute to the unsinkable Molly Ivins, who left us Jan. 31, 2007 for the great press room in the sky. Start the player below to hear What Would Molly Do?.

Cross two famous guys named Brooks - Garth and Mel - and you get Austin folksinger Steve Brooks. He's got a song for every occasion, from the sublime to the ridiculous and back. His tunes range from comic commentary and crackerbarrel philosophy to lyrical love ballads and sharp-edged snapshots of Texas and the world. "Steve is an extraordinary Austin songwriter," says Cyd Wright of Quillen's Coffeehouse. "His songs can be hysterically funny or tearfully sad." Best-known for writing a song-a-week for Jim Hightower's radio show, his work has been recorded by artists like Kevin So, Emily Kaitz and Slaid Cleaves, who calls him, "A great unsung songwriter of Austin." He's had music in two films and appeared in two more, including the 2004 release "Barbecue: A Texas Love Story." A master of words as well as music, he was featured on TV's "I've Got a Secret" as six-time World Pun Champion. When he's not in a coffeehouse or a beer joint, you can catch him behind a pulpit, guest-preaching on topics like songwriting and spirituality. Says Songwriter's Circle magazine, covering Steve at the Kerrville Folk Festival: "The man is Steve Brooks and his mission most of the time: to be the poet, protester, songwriter, activist, political satirist, humorist that he is. No doubt Brooks is one of the most authentically colorful characters in the Kerrville gathering of colorful characters…His color comes out in what he says and what he does - his talk and his walk." His sixth CD, 2004's "BushWhacked," was the ultimate short-shelf-life project - an election-year collection that expired November 3. It's a hilarious sequel to "Fever," his 2003 album of Texas peace songs. It follows 1999's "Sex, Lies and Videotape,"- the best of his Hightower songs - 1998's intimate "Bulletproof" and 1995's country-flavored "Purgatory Road." In-between is "Mazola," a bootleg set of raunchy barroom ballads. If there's a common thread to Steve's songs, it's that we can change the world when we look at it from a different angle - or from several angles at once. As Steve puts it - a bit more poetically - "A single new star rearranges a whole constellation." Here is a 30 minute podcast of Steve on the Austin Connection. (23Mbytes) Steve has established a mailing list to which he sends weekly updates of his upcoming performances. You can add your name to his list from here. Check out these other musicians blessed by the Frog: Marilyn Rucker The Studebakers Jeff Talmadge Edge City Slaid Cleaves Austin Conspiracy of Performing Songwriters PUNS PHOTOS REVIEWS EMAIL STEVE ALBUMS, LYRICS AND ORDERING CDs This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here.