(Austin, TX – July 2024) Throughout his extensive and diverse career, Stephen Doster, an inductee into the Texas Music Legends Hall of Fame, will release his seventh record, A Passing Train-A Compilation, on Atticus Records on Friday, September 6, 2024. This double disc release will feature 24 songs and a 24-page booklet showcasing 44 years of Doster’s songwriting and recording history from 1980 to 2024. The album will contain 14 previously unreleased songs and ten songs previously released on one of his six earlier albums. The release will be celebrated with a show at The Backstage at El Mercado on Saturday, September 7, 2024, featuring performances by Chris Searles, Brian Standefer, Randy Miller, Dave Madden, JM Stevens, Kyle Brock, John Viehweg, Kim Hayley, Will Sexton and more.

 Two songs, “A Passing Train” and “The One That I Got (Melinda’s Song),” were recorded in

2024, specifically for this release. Each song has a year written by each title, identifying the era from which it came. “This Is No Accident,” 1980, is the oldest song from Doster’s original touring band, which formed gradually on the stage of The Hole In The Wall in the late 1970s. 

Stephen is especially excited that four songs from 1982 have been curated from his work

with his friend and mentor, James Honeyman-Scott of the Pretenders. “Jimmy was on break with his band and in Texas with his wife, Peggy Sue, when he heard some demos. Lucky for me, he wanted to work with me as my producer, which was a dream come true.” Sadly, he passed away while they were working. The main master tape was stolen, and its chance of being heard greatly diminished. Luckily, inspired by The Beatles’ recent restoration of cassette tapes, Doster found these working demos with Honeyman-Scott in a box in his drawer. “These tapes initially sounded unworkable, but then I realized my cassette player was more the problem. I then digitized it, took it to the studio, and my collaborators at EAR Studio, James Stevens and Jim Wilson, at Jim Wilson Mastering, made it sound as good as possible.” These recordings are from the original recordings and have not been altered with AI. The rest of the unreleased songs are from before the release of Doster’s debut, Rosebud. Indie records were not as prevalent then, so they were never released. 

In 2023, Stephen and his wife, photographer Melinda Doster, lost their only son, Django Doster. His paintings and drawings, along with his wife’s photos, will be featured in the 24-page booklet accompanying this record, which is dedicated to his life. 

Stephen will celebrate his upcoming release with a show at The Backstage at El Mercado

on Saturday, September 7, 2024—more details to be announced.

Stephen’s extended BIO:

Stephen moved to London, England, before his second birthday due to his father’s work for the U.S. government. After three years, the Doster family moved to Chateauroux, France, where they stayed for two years before returning stateside to Abilene, Texas. It was here he joined his first band, the Par-We-Romis, which they believed meant ‘The Three Little Twigs’ in Latin. The family moved to San Antonio, Texas 1966, where his guitar playing began in earnest. At a young age, he saw many bands

there, including The Animals, The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, and Blind Faith, which he witnessed from the side of the stage thanks to Ginger Baker’s friend. At the end of his freshman year of high school, he moved back to Europe to Wiesbaden, Germany, where he would complete high school. His band, the Taunus Valley Medicine Show, was popular in the region, playing for locals and frequently playing on American air bases. 

After high school, Stephen moved back to London to start his music career. There were few

places to play live in London’s pre-punk era. He got word that Austin, Texas, had ‘music everywhere,’ so he returned home to Texas to see for himself. He has made the Austin area his home ever since. He lives near Austin in the Texas Hill Country with his wife, photographer Melinda Doster. Doster is co-owner of EAR Studio (East Austin Recording) with his longtime record-making collaborator James Stevens, formerly of Moonlight Towers. He is currently touring and recording as JM Stevens (Chicken Ranch Records.) 

Songs he has written or co-written have been recorded by Dr John, Willie Nelson, Double

Trouble, Maren Morris, Albert Cummings, Tommy Elskes, Rick Busby, Storyville,

Jonny Lang, Philip Gibbs, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Brint Anderson, Malford Milligan, and Charlie Sexton. Throughout his career, Doster has shared stages and studio sessions with a long and eclectic line of musical luminaries, including Joe Cocker, Lyle Lovett, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, James Honeyman-Scott, Little Feat, Mark O’Connor, Ricky Nelson, Split Enz, Marshall Crenshaw, Ani DiFranco, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and Nanci Griffith, with whom he appeared on Austin City Limits in 1985. He has produced over 70 albums for other artists, including records for Maren Morris, Carolyn Wonderland, Uncle Lucius, George Ensle, and Stanley Smith. 

As 2015 began, Doster’s late 2014 record release, Arizona (Atticus Records), was atop the “Best of the Year” lists in the Austin Chronicle and the Austin American Statesman. Peter Blackstock named Arizona among his “Top Ten of 2014” in the Austin American Statesman, calling it “exquisitely crafted, classic guitar and piano pop.” Blackstock also nominated the record in The Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop Poll for the year. The Austin Chronicle’s Jim Caligiuiri echoed the praise, placing Arizona at the top of his 2014 poll, lauding it as a “masterpiece” with “one charmed melody after another.”

Doster kicked off 2016 with the Texas Songwriters Association inducting him into the Texas Music Legends Hall of Fame. The occasion recognized over forty years of his work in music.

Arizona came 18 years after his debut Rosebud. In between, he released Impossible Sun with Will Sexton and Carter Doster Sexton, with Sexton and Bill Carter. 

In 2018, Doster returned with his third solo record, New Black Suit, an album that the Austin Chronicle’s Doug Freeman praised for its “perfect, driving melodies in the key of reflection.” Philadelphia’s MAGNET magazine described the record as “Something especially heavy.” 

His 2022 release, over the red sea, was critically acclaimed in the USA, the UK, and Europe. “An album to be savored at leisure.”