Description

After three home-produced CDs of political satire, Steve’s first studio album in 14 years captures another side of his art: poetic, romantic and spiritual. “I’ve been chasing grace, but grace ain’t so easily found,” he sings in his soaring version of One Good Year, co-written with Slaid Cleaves. On this record, he’s looking for it in unlikely places, from the mountains of North Carolina to Iowa fields and Texas honky-tonks. His search is brought to life by producer Chris Gage, of the Austin duo Albert & Gage, and sidemen like Richard Bowden (Maines Brothers Band), Tom Pittman (Austin Lounge Lizards), Eddie Cantu (Bruce Robison, Kelly Willis) and Courtney Audain (Timbuk 3).

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“Brooks is known for knowing exactly what to say to concisely bring home a monumental theme…One of the state’s top lyricists. He is simply the most clever man you’ll hear with a guitar.”
– Christy Claxton, Stave Magazine

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“Don’t know if Steve Brooks minds being compared to Iris DeMent but his voice really projects that same pure emotional quality and his songwriting is superb…and a great production by Chris Gage as always.”
– Butch Kara, KZGM-FM, Cabool, MO

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Bookending the album’s 12 songs are the mystical Walking With the Elders (inspired by a grove of old-growth trees in the Smokey Mountains) and the hymnlike Precious. In-between is a cycle of songs about love lost and rediscovered, and what he learns along the way. From the simple regret of Will I Ever Love That Way Again? and Paradise, his retelling of the Garden of Eden, he looks into his own depths in Dark Side of the Heart and begins to come out the other side in The Other Shoe. In Bottomless Love, he finds that he can indeed love that way again. He looks down the road, to the challenges making it last, in Love is a House and Riding Out the Storm, while affirming his gypsy spirit in One More Shot of Whiskey, with a tip of his cowboy hat to Willie Nelson.

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Walking With the Elders • Will I Ever Love That Way Again? • Iowa Wind • Paradise • One Good Year • The Dark Side of the Heart • The Other Shoe • Bottomless Love • Riding Out the Storm • Love is a House • One More Shot of Whiskey • Precious