05/02/12- I will be playing an acoustic show with John Groover McDuffie this Sunday, May 06 from 1-5p at the Historic Rock Inn in Lake Hughes.  For details, check out the "shows" page on this site.

05/02/2012-To get a free mp3 of "MySpace", go to http://www.StephenDavidAustin.com/ and click on the “download mp3” button on the music player at the bottom of the page. To a curmudgeon like me, social media is a necessary evil to get our music out there. I hope you "like" the song.

04/10/2012- Nice interview on the Country Startpage! (click for link).

“The 11 tunes here make up a brilliant CD debut by an immensely talented creator and performer of a fresh helping of roots Americana… It's a fine mix by a newcomer who could be on the national radar soon.” -- KEN ROSENBAUM, TOLEDO BLADE

"I just got around to listening to it last night... and it is awesome.
Usually it takes two or three listens to fully appreciate new CDs but this was clearly a winner after one play.
Whatever it cost you, it was money well spent.
Now if somebody big decides to record a song or two, it will really be well spent.
But it's money well spent regardless.
When is the next one?" -- ROBERT PRICE, THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN / AUTHOR OF "THE BAKERSFIELD SOUND"

..."[Stephen David Austin] is a wit and a writer of prose, reminiscent of Robert Earl Keen. Most [songs] are autobiographical and more than a few involve bad, bad men. In "The Cage" Austin picks up a hitchhiker who just finished serving his sentence for beating a man to death. Heroes and Heroin take a look at the lives of Gram Parsons, Jerry Garcia, and Charlie Parker.
I think the song that best sums up Austin is, "Best Ex I Ever Had" – a high-energy shuffle about a woman who is only happy when he’s sad. It’s funny, it’s fun, and I like it that way. There has been some use of the word “poet” in conjunction with Stephen David Austin, and I’m not sure that’s fair. Those who want REAL poetry may feel let down and those who hate poetry will be missing out. If it’s poetry, it’s Hank Williams poetry. It’s pain- shares. His band is top notch, full of guys from I See Hawks in LA and Dwight Yoakam’s band. A Bakersfield Dozen is a collection of great music and better stories."spoken rural poetry, which I think is a harder stunt to perform and more fun to listen to.
Musically, Austin has a low and round warble that works great with the stories he shares. His band is top notch, full of guys from I See Hawks in LA and Dwight Yoakam’s band. "A Bakersfield Dozen" is a collection of great music and better stories.
-- GRANT LANGSTON, SOUTHLAND SERENADE, 03/24/2012

"Love the lyrics of these pure country songs".
-- THE COUNTRY STARTPAGE

"Some people have problems"
-- A TROUBLED BLOGGER

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL REVIEWS ON THE "PRESS" PAGE

03,31,2012-  April 1 will commemorate the 6th anniversary of the passing of Buddy Blue. I wrote "The Day Buck Owens Died" on March 25, 2006 after learning of Mr. Owen's demise from Buddy's web site. On his guest book, affectionately referred to as the BBGB, Buddy assembled a worldwide family of people who'd otherwise never have had the opportunity to get aquainted. The BBGB was by far the most fun I've ever had in a "social media" setting. We'd discuss politics, current events, and  -- most of all -- music. All this was served with a steady diet of irreverence and potty humor.  Man, we had some fun there.
     Buddy was a founding member of the Beat Farmers, a formidable songwriter, producer, singer, writer of prose, and musician in his own right, and a driving force behind the Farmers, which featured 3 founding Beat Farmers: Buddy, Jerry Raney, and Rolle Love. Most of all, he was a musical hero who didn't make me feel like a dorky fanboy. We all participated and felt welcome in his online community, and he left a void in all of our lives when he left too soon. With the passing of Earl Scruggs this week, I've lost anothr hero.
     While Buddy may not have achieved the degree of international acclaim that met Buck and Earl, he was a force to be reckoned with, and we miss him. Anyone who hasn't already done so should buy all of the first 3 Beat Farmers albums ("Tales of the New West"," Van Go",  and "Glad 'N' Greasy", as well as "Loaded" by the Farmers, and all of Buddy's solo albums you can find. He left us too soon, and I miss him.
     On a somewhat unrelated subject, I'm still offering free downloads of "The Day Buck Owens Died" on my web site, www.stephendavidaustin.com. Just click the "download mp3" next to the song title on the music player at the bottom of the page. And seriously, get some Buddy Blue records.

03/20/12- Every so often something happens to warrant a free download.  March 25 marked the 6th anniversary of the loss of Buck Owens.  In honor of this pioneer of the Bakersfield Sound, I'm offering a free mp3 download of "The Day Buck Owens Died".  Click on the "Download mp3" button on the music player for a free download through April 1, 2012.  Rest in peace, Mr. Owens.  You'll live forever in your music.

Great storytelling, a dose of humor and a powerhouse backing band lend themselves to Stephen David Austin’s upcoming release …

A BAKERSFIELD DOZEN

Los Angeles, CA 2.14.2012—The wry gallows humor of Stephen David Austin is evident on his upcoming release, A Bakersfield Dozen (due May 8, 2012). When explaining why he is a ‘three-named’ performer, Austin tells us, “If I released the CD as Steve Austin, I ran the risk of being confused with the ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ of 1970’s television fame, or the ‘Stone Cold’ wrestler-turned-actor.” Backed by stellar musicians, the Tehachapi singer-songwriter emphasizes raw roots music and great storytelling. “If you can’t tap your feet to it, or tap your beer bottle against the tabletop”, Austin claims, “you’ve missed the target.”

Known mainly as a sideman and cover musician before A Bakersfield Dozen, Austin decided to take the reins of his career with encouragement from both Tom T. Hall and Dave Alvin. “I told Dave how much his music was like my life story,” Austin recently told the newspaper, The Bakersfield Californian. “Then we started talking about Okie history. At one point he said it sounded like Merle Haggard wrote was I was saying. I met him again when he was in town and we started talking about those same things. He finally said his songs were largely autobiographical, which I interpreted as ‘you should write your own life story’.” Austin sent his songs to Tom T. Hall, who wrote back to him that he liked his music and encouraged him to make a living at it, saying, “it’s lots of fun and beats working!”

Music these days seems to straddle several genres, and A Bakersfield Dozen is no exception. There’s a heavy dose of Americana with an emphasis on the Bakersfield sound (including a loving tribute to hero, Buck Owens). There is also great storytelling in the traditional country music sense, with the music running from old-timey string instrumentation through traditional Telecaster twang to in-your-face Americana roots-rock. Change is a constant theme throughout the record, presenting Austin’s vision of life as a subtle yet jarring shift. The subject matter is at times heavy, but his sense of humor prevails, never leaving us alone in the dark.

The 11 songs are autobiographical, with the exception being a cover of the Beatles’ “Baby’s in Black”. The song was covered as a favor to a friend, but Austin also cites the Beatles as leading him to the Bakersfield sound, saying, “I started noticing how much George Harrison played like Don Rich from the Buckaroos, particularly on the Beatles 65 album, where the band covered ‘Act Naturally’.” In “The Day Buck Owens Died”, Austin uses the well-known guitar lick from Owens’ signature song, “Buckaroo”.

The song “Best Ex I Ever Had” was a title that he had for a year before the rest of the words came to him. “I was sitting at a bar, doing shots with the bartender and talking about country songs, when we came up with the title”, he said. “Heroes and Heroin” is a cautionary tale about heroes becoming martyred and romanticized. Austin says that Gram Parsons, Jerry Garcia and Charlie Parker were the inspirations for the song. The song “The Cage” was taken straight from his life. “I picked up a hitchhiker, and as we got to talking, he told me he had just gotten out of prison that day. He was in for beating a man to death. I got a little nervous after that.”

The lineup of players on A Bakersfield Dozen reads like a list of ‘Who’s Who’ in the Americana music world. Both Marty Rifkin (Pedal and Lap Steel-Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty) and Paul Marshall (Bass & Vocals-I See Hawks in LA, The Strawberry Alarm Clock) had a heavy hand in the encouragement and making of the album (Rifkin also mixed and mastered). Other players are Shawn Nourse on drums (I See Hawks in LA, Dwight Yoakam), Teresa James on background vocals (Reba McIntire, Levon Helm), Brantley Kearns on fiddle (Dave Alvin, Mike Ness), Skip Edwards on piano and accordion (Gene Clark, Lucinda Williams, Buck Owens) and Austin’s longtime friend, Dave Currall, playing guitar on two songs.

Americana music is a lyricist’s domain, and the perfect vehicle for a storyteller-songwriter like Stephen David Austin. As The Midwest Record wrote about A Bakersfield Dozen “[Austin] displays his love for Buck and Merle but he does it through the eyes and ears of Kinky Friedman and Chinga Chavin. So left of center, it’s a must for subversive alt. country fans that like seeing the envelope pushed so far it tears. This is a great set to play just to see if the people around you are paying attention.”