On September 6, 2024 Stephen Doster will release his seventh record, A Passing Train-A Compilation. The release is a double disc featuring 24 songs and a 24-page booklet that spans a period from 1980 to 2024, 44 years of Doster’s songwriting and recording history. The records will have 14 unreleased songs to go with 10 songs previously released on one of his six earlier releases. 

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 formed gradually on the stage of The Hole In The Wall in the late 70s. 

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, a dream come true.” Sadly, he passed away while they were working. The main master tape was stolen and the chance of it being heard were 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 collaborator 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 the period of time before the release of Doster’s debut, Rosebud. Indie records were not as prevalent in those days, so they were never released. 

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. 

Over the course of 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. 

 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.

As 2015 began, Doster’s late 2014 record release, Arizona (Atticus Records), found itself atop “Best of the Year’ lists at 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”.

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 was back 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.”

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