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Steve Forbert
Strange Names & New Sensations Biography
Nearly 28 years since breaking into pop
consciousness with his second album Jackrabbit Slim and its
infectious Top Ten single “Romeo’s Tune,” Steve Forbert remains
a master of songs offering clear-eyed insight and plain-spoken,
heartfelt eloquence. On his 429 Records/SLG debut, the
well-traveled Nashville-based troubadour—who maintains a busy
touring schedule of over 100 dates a year — explores his ongoing
fascination for Strange Names & New Sensations with
characteristic wit, a sense of social consciousness and the
ever-present romantic optimism that has endeared him to two
generations of folk/rock fans.
Beyond launching an exciting relationship with a new label, the
vibrant collection finds Forbert in the midst of a true career
renaissance at the wonderful age of 52—a time in his life he
reflects upon wistfully on the sly narrative of the uptempo,
horn driven tune “Middle Age.”
This is his eleventh release of the decade, a roll that began
with Evergreen Boy in 2000 and included four live recordings in
addition to a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Folk Album
for Any Old Time: Songs Of Jimmy Rodgers--a tribute to
“America’s Blue Yodeler” who was the first country music
superstar (and a native of Forbert’s hometown, Meridian,
Mississippi). In 2003, Geffen released Rock While I Can Rock:
The Geffen Years, which featured material from two albums
Forbert released on the label, 1988’s Streets Of This Town and
1992’s The American In Me. In October of 2006, Forbert was
inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.
In addition to ten original vocal tracks and the easy rolling,
country flavored instrumental “Around The Bend” (Forbert’s first
non-vocal song since “Lucky” on 1980’s Little Stevie Orbit),
Strange Names & New Sensations includes a new rendition of
“Romeo’s Tune” that captures the folk-pop side of the singer’s
artistry, complete with organ and harmonica. Recorded primarily
at Moondog Music, the Nashville-based studio owned by legendary
E-Street Band member Garry Tallent—who plays bass and
co-produced the title song--Strange Names & New Sensations finds
Forbert working with numerous longtime friends and
collaborators, including primary album co-producer Tim Coats
(who first worked with Forbert as engineer on Mission of the
Crossroad Palms; producer Anthony Crawford (whose relationship
with Forbert extends back to his vocal contributions on The
American In Me); and keyboardist Paul Errico and drummer Roger
Clark, both of whom played on Jackrabbit Slim.
“I never set out to do an album around a specific theme, but I
enjoy the process of watching them develop as the songs come
together,” says Forbert. “Even though I consider ‘Middle Age’
and ‘Thirty More Years’ to be flags around the new album, my
intention going into the project wasn’t to create a recording
about aging. The album title springs from the song ‘Strange
Names (North Jersey’s Got ‘Em)’ and is obviously meant to
reflect a lot of new sensations in my life. Many are positive,
especially the romantic songs inspired by my girlfriend, and
then you have the lament for (the late actor/monologist)
Spalding Gray and the one asking all the questions about the
conflict in Iraq.
“From the beginning of my career thirty years ago,” he adds,
“I’ve always been about the songs. I like the challenge of
writing good songs that reflect new things that are going on
around me. But the songs can’t exist only on paper. Once I’m
happy with what I’ve written, I work hard to make sure I’ve got
a strong recording of it. I’m very happy with the results on
Strange Names, which was recorded strictly with friends of mine
(most of them longtime ones), and I’m happy to have this
relationship with 429.”
The first three tracks on Strange Names & New Sensations
perfectly capture Forbert’s knack for observational songwriting.
“Middle Age” ruminates on the various paradoxes of midlife,
while the very upbeat “Strange Names (North Jersey’s Got ‘Em)”
pokes light at some of the goofy town names of a region he’s
toured through for years. Surrounded by a haunting, Irish music
ambience, “Simply Spaulding Gray” is a moody reflection of a
brilliant yet tortured talent who suffered a tragic fate. “Man,
I Miss That Girl” is a soulful, easy swaying song of romantic
regret—complete with a sweet accordion harmony throughout—that
opens the singer’s heart to express, in the next song, love for
his significant other (the acoustic folk tune “You’re Meant For
Me”), and then to fashion a mandolin-spiced, wonder-filled paean
to the Creator of the Universe (“I Will Sing Your Praise”).
The next two songs, “Something Special” and “My Seaside
Brown-eyed Girl” are joyous and unapologetic, tropical flavored
love songs which remind the listener that, nearly three decades
after singing “let me smell the moon in your perfume,” Forbert
hasn’t lost his innocent optimism when it comes to love. War is
another matter, of course, and the singer digs in heavy with a
rage-filled electric blues rocker asking several pointed
questions about “The Baghad Dream” and its deadly
consequences—complete with the booming sounds of exploding bombs
behind the groove. Forbert calls the witty time-gone-by piece
“Thirty More Years” a sister song to “Middle Age.” Strange Names
& New Sensations wraps up with the country-folk flavored
instrumental “Around The Bend” (featuring the bright pedal steel
guitar of Robby Turner) and the new twist on “Romeo’s Tune” that
Forbert calls “meet me in the middle of the road.”
Growing up in Meridian, Steve Forbert first picked up the guitar
at age 10 and spent his high school years playing in a variety
of local bands. Frustrated with his later job as a truck driver,
the restless singer/songwriter moved at 21 to New York City,
where he performed for spare change in Grand Central Station
before working his way up through the Manhattan club circuit.
Performing at Folk City and eventually opening for artists like
Talking Heads and John Cale at CBGB, Forbert became something of
a local sensation and signed his first record deal with the
CBS-distributed label Nemperor.
Released at the height of the new wave explosion, his 1978 debut
Alive On Arrival offered a first look at his colorful mix of
spare acoustic introspection and scrappy rock ‘n’ roll to become
one of the year's most acclaimed albums. While critics tagged
him—like Bruce Springsteen, John Prine and Elliot Murphy before
him—“the next Dylan,” Forbert never put too much stock in the
comparison and forged his own path, expanding his audience
substantially with 1979’s commercial breakthrough Jackrabbit
Slim and his era defining hit single, “Romeo's Tune.”
After releasing Little Stevie Orbit (1980) and Steve Forbert
(1982), the singer encountered the harsh reality of
record-company politics, resulting in a long and frustrating
legal battle that kept him from releasing new music for the
better part of six years. Live recordings from this period later
surfaced in 1997 as Here’s Your Pizza, which showcased the
rambunctious onstage energy of Forbert and his band, The Rough
Squirrels; the group would later release another concert date,
Live At The Bottom Line, in 2001.
After moving to Nashville, Forbert signed with Geffen for two
albums that presented a rootsier musical approach and pointed,
pensive lyrics reflecting his struggle to hold onto idealism in
the face of adult disappointments. After two releases on the
Warner Bros. subsidiary Giant in the mid-90s (Mission of the
Crossroad Palms, Rocking Horse Head), he found a new home at
Koch Records in 2000 and released some of his most compelling
original works yet, including Evergreen Boy, Any Old Time and
2004’s Just Like There’s Nothin’ To It. Smaller labels also
released the archival collections Young Guitar Days and More
Young Guitar Days, consisting of previously unreleased material
from the first five years of Forbert’s recording career.
When Forbert released Just Like There’s Nothin’ To It, he
remarked at the time, “Music should be truthful and real, but it
should also be healing and uplifting.” Delivering all of those
qualities on the remarkable Strange Names & New Sensations, he
will be presenting many of these songs live for the first time
with his new band The Soundbenders throughout the U.S. this
summer. “I enjoy playing live,” he says, “especially because I
relate quite a bit to the audience I have at this point.
Since I was, say, five years old, I’ve been intrigued by songs.
They’ve got so much power and information packed into just a few
minutes. All these years later, I’m glad to still be in the
world of songs.”
