Thought y'all might be interested in the news below. Being recognized in connection with one of my heroes puts a big lump in my throat, especially when the judges were also heroes. Utah Phillips is an icon of labor singers, and a mutual friend of the late Al Grierson. Ronnie Gilbert was one of the original Weavers, alongside Pete Seeger. As for Kinky and Country Joe, well, gimme an F...

Steve

Monday, Feb. 11, 2008            For more information, contact:           

For Immediate Release            Bill McCarthy, RHFMI, (310) 425-6134

                                                Steve Brooks, (512) 440-7668, steve@...

AUSTIN FOLKSINGER WINS MOLLY IVINS SONGWRITING CONTEST

            Raise Hell For Molly Ivins, a grassroots campaign devoted to carrying on the spirit and work of the late Austin political columnist, has chosen Austin folksinger Steve Brooks as the winner of its Molly Ivins songwriting contest. The announcement was made at a gala in San Francisco on January 31, the first anniversary of Ivin’s passing in 2007.

            The song “What Would Molly Do?” was chosen by a panel of judges that included music icons Utah Phillips, Kinky Friedman, Ronnie Gilbert and Country Joe McDonald, as well as Ivins colleagues Dave Richards and Charlotte McCann, publisher of the Texas Observer.

            A requirement of the contest was that all recordings include pots and pans, in tribute to Ivin’s final column, in which she wrote, "Every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell... We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, stop it now!" The group has been staging pots-and-pans protests at congressional offices around the country on the third Friday of every month.

            “We are looking for a ballad that is fun, irreverent, uses powerful words and satire to speak truth to power with wit and style,” writes the group in its contest announcement. “Something Molly would have liked. Something simple that people can sing on picket lines and at Texas bonfires for the next hundred years…to join the community of great popular songs such as the Ballad of Joe Hill and the Ballad of John & Yoko, honoring world-class hell raisers.”

            Brooks is known in Austin for his musical work with another world-class hell raiser, Jim Hightower. In 1998 and 1999, he wrote a song-a-week about current events for Hightower’s radio talk show, broadcast from Threadgill’s World Headquarters. He’s released several albums of topical songs, including “Sex, Lies and Videotape” (1999), “Fever” (2003) and “Bushwhacked” (2004). In 2003, he made headlines by serenading 13 Texas state senators who had fled to Albuquerque, with a song about the state’s redistricting battle. In 2006, his song “Deadeye Dick” won a contest at the North American Folk Alliance conference for impromptu songs about vice-president Dick Cheney’s hunting accident.

            His non-topical songs have been recorded by artists like Slaid Cleaves and Russell Crowe. He’s also six-time winner of Austin’s O.Henry Pun-Off.

            “What Would Molly Do?” along with several other contest entries, can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/mollyivinssongcontest1. A recording without pots and pans can be heard and downloaded at www.stevebrooks.net. The lyrics are attached. More information about RHFMI can be found at www.raisehellformollyivins.org.

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