About Me
Member of: NSAI, SPBGMA & Missouri Traditional Country Music,
Brenda Libby says her claims to fame are few. Songwriter & Nama first....everything else takes a backseat on her bucket list. The artist spends most of her days & nights wrapped around her latest creations...sometimes wishing for a little more sleep and a little less ideas!Brenda Libby grew up in the Missouri Ozarks....fifth child of a fifth child and third daughter of a third daughter.
Brenda's first audiences included her large Cornbread 'N Beans families and Camden County Courthouse officials. Lynn Libby, her father, was the County sheriff for most of her growing up years, thus; the young girl spent a great amount of her time in the courthouse...utilizing the echoing of the great halls at night to hone her craft. The young Libby teen soon realized she was getting applause from the jailhouse upstairs and it became a requested nightly event. Rita Jo, her Mother, was a beauty, as well as one of the best yodelers and big band singers ever. Her love of music was shared with this daughter and cemented a foundation of great understanding throughout their lifetime together.
Brenda spent her teen years singing & acting at school events, participating in talent contests and performed with many of the local shows and musicians in the Lake of the Ozarks region. In 1970, the Country Shindig, owned by she and her first husband, was opened on her birthday to a capacity crowd. Brenda opened/ sang backup for huge Nashville acts such as; Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton, Porter Waggoner, Lynn Anderson, Mel Tillis, Loretta Lynn, Sonny James, Barbara Mandrell and others. She soon became hooked on writing much of the Country Shindig comedy, show routines and graduated into full-time songwriting after a divorce.
During the late 70's, early 80's, the struggling songwriter spent much of her time visiting Nashville...writing & learning her craft with mentors like Wayne Carson, Sonny Throckmorton and the late Bonnie Owens. In 1983, Brenda enjoyed being named “New and Developing†in Cashbox Magazine, DJ week, as Give It Back, on Comstock Records, became a Top 20 hit in Canada and made the Top 50's in the USA. In 1989, Texas Rain, a two-step featuring harmonics and percussions from the late Terry McMillan, was released in Europe, making it into the Top 20's across many of the countries there.
The artist refers to herself as a songwriter/singer first and foremost, though she has enjoyed writing children's books and bookoos of poetry in the last few years.
Brenda has dedicated most of her waking hours, and even some of her sleeping ones, to songwriting, of late. Everyday holds a new surprise in creativity. An avid member of NSAI, Brenda continues her journey to improve, as she works with other established songwriters of NSAI and her mentors via the internet. Brenda Libby (Saxton) has never stopped reaching for more...more music, more words, more thoughts, deeper feelings, hidden memories. She feels her cup does NOT only runneth over...it continues to run. And like the good daughter, she continues to run full steam ahead at saving some of her family's history through her western and bluegrass songwriting, though she writes all style/genres of music. Honoring those that have passed on with her precious memories has become a true labor of love. This addiction has spilled over into her husband's family history as she wrote I Ride Mustangs in 2006. A true story song of the mid to late 1800's about Charles Dexter Dead-eye Dick Saxton. This song gallops from beginning to end and is featured on Brenda’s myspace page.
One can view and feel this writers heart in songs like; Pickin' Wild Mtn. Berries, Like Ivy, Cowgirl's Best Friend, She's a Legend, Oh, My Child, and others.
But the writer in Brenda Libby does not stop at the true memories...she has been known to conjure up imaginative thoughts and has displayed that vivid imagination through a list of songs a mile long! Pop, Country, Bluegrass, Western and Folk.
Always a people watcher and a sensitive soul, Brenda knows she will most likely die, barefoot & knee-deep, in a field of her own music!
After living many years in the Winds of Wyoming and near the blackberry covered barb wire fences of Missouri, Brenda now resides in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her hubby of 13 years, Marty, a U.S. Forest Service TMO.
(and a really great guy who is extremely passionate about his wife's music)
A western window, facing Mt. Rushmore, gives them a sense of peace and beautiful sunsets to view as Brenda serenades him at the end of a long day.All stories, pictures, songs & poems shared on this website are copyrighted by Artist/Author and cannot be published, copied or duplicated, in any manner without written consent of Brenda Libby Saxton.
