The veteran tunesmith plays Midtown on Tuesday, aiming to ‘keep the singer-songwriter tradition alive’ as he tours behind his latest album, ‘Moving Through America.’ The Local Spins Q&A.
Still Keeping the Music Going: Steve Forbert started his career in New York City in the late 1970s. (Photo/Marcus Maddox)
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At 68, Steve Forbert is still hitting the road with his guitar and a personal library of original songs.
Perhaps best known for his 1979 hit song, “Romeo’s Tune,” Forbert has recorded more than 20 studio albums. Leaving his Mississippi upbringing for New York City in the 1970s, Forbert cut his teeth performing at iconic Greenwich Village open stages.
His songs have been recorded by Rosanne Cash, Keith Urban, Marty Stuart and Webb Wilder. With a career that has spanned nearly 50 years, Forbert has weathered a fast-changing industry with grace and a love of his craft.
Forbert performs at Midtown in Grand Rapids at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (March 28), part of a Midwest tour that kicked off Friday. Tickets are $20 and available online here. He chatted recently with Local Spins.
Local Spins: How’d you end up in New York City in the 1970s?
Steve Forbert: As you might imagine, in Mississippi, in that area, there weren’t any folk clubs, there weren’t places to showcase original material. So I had to get out of there with the songs I was writing. In New York, I played what you would now call open-mics. I did those for quite a while and just worked my way up to playing other folk clubs on bigger stages.
Storytelling and Character Portraits: All part of Forbert’s latest release. (Photo/Marcus Maddox)
Local Spins: How has the way you make records changed over the years?
Steve Forbert: I’ve had to adjust to the fact that when people are trying to make commercial records, they don’t typically go in and set up and play live looking at each other in the moment. That’s the way I used to do it. That really is the best way. But it’s just so convenient to work on the digital format. So I’ve acquiesced. It’s very convenient. And once you get into it, you just really can’t do without the convenience.
Local Spins: At 68, what keeps you on the road performing?
Steve Forbert: Well, I like to stay active. And I’ve never been a technically oriented musician. So I don’t sit around and practice scales. If I’m playing at home, it’s almost always involved in writing a song. But I like to keep playing music. So I stay active playing clubs and traveling. You’re either playing music or you’re not. So I’m not going to just sit at home and face the wall and sing songs to amuse myself. I want to get out there and play and keep the music going. And I don’t want to get rusty.
Local Spins: What’s the craft of songwriting look like for you?
Steve Forbert: Well, it’s pages and pages. Rough drafts, rough, rough drafts. And it just takes a lot of refining.
Local Spins: What can people expect from the live show?
Steve Forbert: It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ll go all the way back to the first song on the first record. I still play it and people want to hear it. I really relate to the lyrics just the same now. We’ll play songs from all 20 records.
Local Spins: What are a few of the themes and topics on “Movin’ Through America”?
Steve Forbert: It starts off with a song called “Buffalo Nickel,” which is a meditation on the irony of American Buffalo nickels. And then it ranges all the way to sort of a journal entry on tour. There’s a song on there about a guy with a gambling problem. There’s a song on there that turned out to be a tribute to the late Tom Petty. That’s called “Say Hello to Gainesville.” And there’s a song on there that is simply about fried oysters.
Local Spins: What’s your mission as a songwriter?
Steve Forbert: My mission as a songwriter is to really keep the singer-songwriter tradition alive, as best I can. I try to do that by writing the best songs that I can in that tradition: with storytelling and a guitar.
VIDEO: Steve Forbert, “Moving Through America” (Lyric Video)
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