Bio

Brent Malin is a singer-songwriter centered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has performed his original country and folk songs for audiences throughout the country–from California to his native state of Kansas and beyond. Malin’s most recent recording effort, “Long Long Way,” captures his travels from the plains to the coasts and back, telling stories of lost souls, small towns, and big cities–all inflected by the down-home wisdom and music of his prairie roots.

Malin performs his unique blend of folk, country, and blues music both solo and with his hard rocking alt-country backing band, The Railroaders. Over the years he has had the opportunity to play such exciting venues as New York City’s classic folk club the Bitter End, San Francisco’s Cafe du Nord, the Wheeling Jamboree (the second oldest country radio show in the US), and Pittsburgh’s Club Cafe. He has also shared the bill with such national acts as Diana Jones, Ike Reilly, Hoots and Hellmouth, and the Derailers.

Brent came to music largely through his mother, a pianist, choir director, accountant, and jack-of-all-trades, as well as through growing up in the United Methodist Church where both his mother and father sang in the choir. On hymns like “Blest Be the Tie that Binds,” Brent learned to sing the tenor line between his mother’s alto and his father’s bass; eventually Brent graduated to the bass line himself. While Brent was a college student, his grandpa Malin died, leaving Brent–his youngest grandson–the nylon string guitar he had purchased from the Sears-Roebuck catalog a number of years before. Eventually, Brent took his guitar to Iowa City, Iowa, a vibrant folk and roots-rock music scene and home to such nationally known talents as Greg Brown, Dave Moore, and Bo Ramsey. From there, Brent moved to Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and to San Francisco, continuing to perform both solo and in a variety of rock, roots, and blues bands.

Now living in Pittsburgh, Brent continues to play and record his own Kansas-bred Americana music–a style that a friend recently described as “Country and Mid-Western.”