We may have a rising country star in our neighborhood.

“She’s Janis Joplin, she’s Carol King, she’s Bonnie Raitt. You can’t put her in a class – she’s got a little bit of everything,” says one fan in describing Leslie Gail Brooks.

Sign up for our newsletter!

* indicates required

Her second album, “Passion Speaks Louder Than Words,” is being distributed nationally thanks to the success of her first album, “Hard to Hold,” which landed her in the local music spotlight.

Brooks’ lyrics helped make her one of 30 finalists for the best New Folk Artist award in 1994, and she was featured as a Texas Ballad Tree Artist in 1995.

Even WFAA-Ch. 8 plans to use her song “Twister Alley,” inspired by the devastating Lancaster tornado several years ago, as the theme song for a special documentary on tornadoes.

Brooks describes her music as soulful country inspired by her natural environment, particularly Texas, where she has lived for the past six years.

“I started writing poetry when I was young – all this heavy stuff coming from a young kid. Where was it coming from? It’s a gift and it’s coming from up there,” says Brooks, who grew up in a small town in Kentucky.

As a broadcast journalism student at the University of Kentucky, she found herself strapped for money.

“What could I do on a Friday night? Babysit? Wait tables? No, I had a guitar,” Brooks says.

So she began playing at local restaurants and coffee houses, strumming her guitar to the dozen songs she knew at the time.

After college, Brooks moved to Nashville and pursued her passion, focusing on country music.

“Country music really perked my ear as a writer,” Brooks says.

After living in Nashville three years, Brooks moved to Lake Highlands in 1990.

“I just love the fact that there are so many trees here,” she says.

Brooks even shares a garden with one of her neighbors and says all of her neighbors look out for each other.

“Safety comes first, and I feel safe in this neighborhood,” Brooks says.

A touch of Cajun music can be heard in some of her new songs, as well as R&B, jazz and blues, and of course honky-tonk, with songs such as “Skyscraper Days and Honky-Tonk Nights,” which she says was inspired by Dallas.

“Twister Alley,” with a forthcoming music video, was written by Brooks and her husband and manager Ray Roberts Jr. Ironically, when recording the song, a tornado touched down several miles from the studio, Brooks says.

Lately, Brooks has been using her musical talents to help others, performing at various benefits such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and a concert with Willie Nelson to rebuild Lancaster’s town square.

As for future plans, Brooks wants to keep making music and see what happens.

“I like to live life day-to-day,” she says.