Description

Steve’s first CD is a country-rock love song to his adopted home of Texas and its many cultures and musical styles. They run from a sweetly sad bluebonnet romance and a Native American sweatlodge to a comic tale of a songwriter who begs his girlfriend to cheat on him. Outlaws abound, especially in his trilogy about Terlingua, north of the border, where the West is still wild. But Steve also looks back at his New Orleans years, with tales of race in Louisiana politics and his personal favorite song Everette, a dark portrait of New Orleans poet Everette Maddox, later recorded by Slaid Cleaves. The album rounds out with a wistful Buddhist blues about letting go.

 .

“Steve Brooks could very well be the quintessential country singer. With his slightly nasal, quivering alto voice, he sings of the open country he loves so much and the people who live there. Three Stars”
     – Austin Chronicle

 .

“Brooks’ new album, ‘Purgatory Road,’ is more than country. Some of it really rocks. Brooks makes judicious use of his journalist’s eye for detail. Through it all, his low-key style cuts to the heart of the matter.”
     – New Orleans Times-Picayune

 .

Purgatory Road • The Bluebonnet Waltz • Half an Inch of Heaven • Everette • Hurt Me Tonight • Father and Mother and Me (Seneca Sweat) • Added Years to My Life • Lighthouse • the Great White Hope • The Land of Catfish • Terlingua Trilogy (The River is a Woman • Under the Desert Moon • North of the Border) • (Deep in my Heart is) Texas • The Fine Art of Letting Go