In a real sense musician, songwriter and producer Stephen Doster seems more bard as time goes by for this Austin-based guitarist. According to his website Doster was inducted into the Texas Music Legends Hall of Fame in 2016. And he has not only recorded but performed with the following artists: Joe Cocker, Lyle Lovett, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, James Honeyman-Scott, Little Feat, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Mark O’Connor, Ricky Nelson, Split Endz, Marshall Crenshaw, Ani DiFranco, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and iconic artist Nanci Griffith. In addition Doster has produced more than 70 albums for other artists such as Maren Morris, Carolyn Wonderland, and Stanley Smith. In this recent interview, Doster took some time to answer what drives him and his love of music.

Jupiter Index: You began to play music in 1966, but was it the music or a certain artist that drew you to paying and performing it?
Stephen Doster: In 1966, at the age of ten, I moved from Abilene, Texas to San Antonio, Texas. I no longer had my pals that played guitar to back up my singing, so I started to play guitar. It was truly seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan that first inspired me, and a thousands others, to start a band around 1965. Funny enough the folk music of Bob Dylan and "Blowing In The Wind" is the first song I remember performing. We played it in a medley with "The Ballad of the Green Beret," which sounds like high political art for the time, but was really because it had the same 3 chords probably.

JI: There are many artists that play a part in a musicians career. Which artists made an impression on you creatively as you began playing in music? Was it the songwriting that impressed you?
SD: The good thing about moving to San Antonio at that time is that between 1967 and 1969 I saw a lot of bands- The Animals, The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, John Mayall, The Moody Blues, Spirit, and Blind Faith, where I sat on the stage next to Ginger Baker's drums at age 13. All the songs had my head reeling and the thought of melody and words were just as compelling as the guitars, keys, bass, and drums. What caught my attention was they were all decidedly different.

JI: Do you still remember the first song you ever wrote? Can you describe it?
SD: On the first songs I performed of my own was in Wiesbaden, Germany at a talent show at the American high school at age 15 in 1971. It was called "Harvest Brown." It was either nonsensical or maybe a bit esoteric, "What is happening all around, are we playing for the clouds, laying beneath on the ground, I see the leaves and they're harvest brown." Probably the former.

In addition to being an accomplished singer, you have crafted many songs. What do you enjoy most about the songwriting process?
It's an interesting thing to consider, one that goes back to that early fascination with melody and lyric. I've always differentiated between poetry and lyrics, where the former was meant to stand alone and a song was a blending of the two. I can say what keeps me going is there is never an end. You never write a song and think 'this is so bloody good, I'll never write another.' I just performed a concert of songs that, like my newest release, had songs ranging from 1980 to 2024 and each one was just as challenging. In the end I was glad I wrote them and developed a kind of style. I guess it's just a cathartic thing. I told a fellow songwriter friend of mine I just finished a song and he asked, "did ya cry yet?" I said, 'yeah."

JI: What was the first record/CD you bought and what made the melodies and lyrics special for you?
SD: I think the first I bought with my own earned money from my paper route was Beggar's Banquet by the Stones. It hit me on every sensory level imaginable, and still does.

JI: Would you like to add anything else about your music?
SD: How fun it is to be able to say after 50 years of performing music, two nights ago was one of my favourite gigs ever? Surrounded on stage and off with loving friends, performing my favourite songs in my catalogue. It ain't a bad way to land.

by G.M. Burns