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Chasing Grace has arrived! Click here to order Steve's first studio CD in 14 years, produced by Chris Gage. It includes his version of the Slaid Cleaves classic One Good Year, which he co-wrote with Slaid.

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 newest CD, Chasing Grace, produced by Chris Gage, is his first studio album in 14 years. After several albums of political satire, this one delves into the poetic side of his writing, a journey of loss, longing and discovery in the tradition of his favorite Texas singer-songwriters. It was preceded by 2004's BushWhacked and 2003's Fever, which are now available as a single album, Brooks versus Bush. Earlier discs include 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 Jeff Talmadge Edge City Slaid Cleaves PUNS PHOTOS REVIEWS EMAIL STEVE ALBUMS, LYRICS AND ORDERING CDs