Now based in Asbury Park, New Jersey, the Meridan, Mississippi-raised singer-songwriter Steve Forbert has come an American musical treasure. His latest album, Daylight Savings Time, is another omnivorously observant chronicle of magic and meaning within everyday moments. As he approaches his 70th birthday, Steve explores aging with beautiful, natural metaphors, and a few man-made ones, such as the fun-loving “Purple Toyota” – the album’s second single.
Daylight Savings Time marks Steve’s fourth LP with Blue Rose Music, a Brooklyn-based independent label that donates a portion of revenue to pre-school scholarships to financially disadvantaged children. The album is his third helmed by fellow-Asbury Park creative, producer-engineer Steve Greenwell. Its core components were cut old-school style at Greenwell’s studio in AP with drummer Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors) and keyboard player Rob Clores (Jesse Malin, The Black Crowes). Supple bass lines were contributed by Byron House (Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Al Green), while Gurf Morlix, whose guitar and production gifts were elemental in launching Lucinda Williams into the spotlight, tracked his note-perfect six-string contributions at his Austin home studio.
In 1975, when Steve arrived in New York City from Meridian, his aim was establishing a lifetime of creating, performing, and recording the songs he’d started writing at age 17 after cutting his teeth as a teen in local rock bands. He slotted seamlessly into the “new folk” revival in such Manhattan clubs as Folk City, The Bitter End, and Kenny’s Castaways, yet at the same time took the stage at CBGB, which was ground zero of the burgeoning punk/new wave movement. He also busked on the streets of Greenwich Village and in the elegant confines of Grand Central Station.
Steve chose his solo approach of voice, acoustic guitar, and harmonica, accented by foot stomps, to best approximate the melodic fullness and drive of a band. It inevitably caused him to be tagged as one of the numerous “new Dylans” that emerged in the 1970s. He quickly won a major label deal with Nemperor/CBS Records and released his heralded debut, Alive on Arrival, in 1978. His next album, Jackrabbit Slim, won similar acclaim and brought wider renown to Steve with its No. 11 Pop Chart hit “Romeo’s Tune.” It provided the stature for his troubadour existence, which has kept him active ever since as “a striking performer, very much worth seeing and hearing,” according to The New York Times.
Steve has released 20 studio albums featuring his songwriting gifts. His live show is markedly different and genuinely of the moment; it has yielded four live albums, plus 14 more concert recordings available exclusively on his website at steveforbert.com/. His oeuvre is further rounded out by a 2002 tribute album to the fellow Meridian native, country music founding father Jimmie Rodgers. Titled Any Old Time, the tribute was was nominated for Best Folk Album at the Grammy Awards the following year.
Hailed by concert promoter Peter Jest as “a beacon of authenticity in a world saturated with noise” with an “ability to craft songs that capture the essence of the human spirit,” Steve can be enjoyed live on October 4 at the Iridium in New York City, on October 5 at New Hope Winery, on October 19, at Jersey Shore Arts Center in Ocean Grove, with Pam Flores, and October 20 at Turning Point in Piedmont, New York.
Enjoy the following chat with this legendary Asbury transplant!
It’s safe to say that Steve Forbert is a survivor. You’ve not only overcome a music industry that tried to derail your career, but you’ve also survived kidney cancer while remaining steady with album releases. Comment on how you are the embodiment of one of the characters in your songs who must rely on the human spirit to keep on keeping on.
I just keep trying to write songs. I guess some of my songs have said that. I don’t know of any in particular. I got into this songwriting when I was 17. Before that, I was way into music. “Mr. Tambourine Man” so inspiring to me. I found something I love doing, that’s all.
Daylight Savings Time is your fourth album on Blue Rose Music. How and why did you sign with them, and what do you like most about working with them?
It enables me to keep making records in a way that I’m happy with. It has enabled me to have enough budget to make these records with Steve Greenwell – all but one was produced by Steve Greenwell. It’s enabled me to keep making records and have some access to a good producer and studio time… and to keep on keepin’ on.
What is the theme of Daylight Savings Time, and does the title have a double meaning?
It’s a summer treat. The first song, “Clouds Roll Past the Sky,” is saying, “Make the most of it.” I’m 69. I don’t think I’m elderly, but I’m certainly not middle-aged anymore. When you look at Daylight Savings Time, you get an extra hour and it gets darker later. It is a double meaning because it’s saying, “Why get freaked and fret? Summer’s not done yet. Have another hit and make the most of it.”
Are “One Lone Leaf” and “Dixie Miles” metaphors about aging?
“Dixie Miles’ is not;” that’s about riding the highway heading south from Nashville to Gulf Shores, Alabama. “One Lone Leaf” is similar to the first song, “Clouds Roll Past the Sky.”
“One Lone Leaf” is that point in the summer when you get a feeling from the first leaf that falls out of the woods and hits your feet. It’s just “One Lone Leaf,” but eventually, they all hit the ground. It takes account of getting older. You see the first leaf of fall drift down. This is the beginning of the end of summer. The whole thing about summer as a positive metaphor.
What is your favorite song from the album to play live and why?
It’s pretty fun to play “Purple Toyota.” It certainly has lots of words.
“Sound Existence,” I’m having a good time playing, too. That was the first single. It just seems like it’s appropriate to my style. I’ve played about five times in concert. It’s going over good and seems like a winner.
What do you like most about the video for “Sound Existence,” which is out now?
I usually play and sing in the videos, but I thought, “What if you didn’t have me in this one?” I worked with a friend, Tom Parr. We asked his girlfriend, Cynthia Soler, to appear in the video. I went so well, I decided not be it.
Who plays on the album, and do they ever play with you live?
Aaron Comes has been on three of my records now. He’s from Spin Doctors. He’s playing drums. Steve Greenwell went down to Nashville not long ago to work with bass player Byron House and ask him to play on the record. Gurf Morlix is on lead guitar – he’s a Texas musician. He produced the first few records by Lucinda Williams. I’ve known him for a while. He understands this music, so we asked him to play on the whole album. Keyboardist Rob Clores plays with me. When I do duos, he plays with me. so now I’m always playing as duo with Rob Clores, but sometimes a trio with upright bassist Todd Lanka from Clinton, New Jersey. Sometimes I’m a trio, sometimes a duo with Rob. Sometimes we add a drummer, Joe Bellia, from the Shore area. He plays with a lot of people. He’s really good and he’s in our group whenever we have drums.
The new album is your third that was produced by the aforementioned Asbury Park-based Steve Greenwell. How did you come to work with Steve? What do you like most about working with him?
I heard some records he had mixed several years ago. He was working with Joss Stone and I asked how he mixed those records. Then I found out that Steve Greenwell lives here in Asbury Park, so I contacted him to mix a record in 2015 – Comprised. That’s when I got to know him, and it just progressed from there. In about a year, I started with him producing. He mixed that record, Comprised, then we made Magic Tree, which was a compiling of previous recordings that went with my book, my memoir, Big City Cat. At that time, I released Magic Tree, and I was ready to start a new recording from scratch and asked Steve Greenwell to produce Early Morning Rain. We just going from there. We made Moving to America and now this new one, Daylight Savings Time.
He’s very skilled. He engineers these records, mixes them. He has a working studio in Asbury Park, so he’s convenient and very talented. He’s a good music person. He’s a good person to get a good feel about what’s the best way to approach the drums and percussion. When I come in with a song, it’s just a skeleton, just vocal and guitar, but he knows what to do with it.
Steve is one of several connections you have with Asbury Park. Have you ever and do you still live there?
I’ve lived here for about seven years now.
What and/or who introduced you to Asbury Park?
I discovered it years ago in the early eighties when I lived in New York City. It was a fun place to go to get out of the city, get some fresh air. Much later on, I started a relationship with Diane DeFazio. That made it so I actually lived here to be near her.
What do you like most about Asbury Park and why?
It has a music scene. A lot of cities have music scenes – Atlanta does, Washington, DC, and Boston, but one good thing about Asbury Park is that it’s a good scene for older music fans, people who had grown up with the Springsteen phenomenon. A lot of that energy is still alive in the area. It’s a good music scene for older rock ‘n’ roll fans.
I just played an outdoor concert on St. John’s Island. That’s an example – the sort of people who showed up to that. It was free admission. I played with Vini ‘Mad Dog’ & the Expensive Winos. They played, then we played as a trio with Rob and Todd. Who was there were all these older rock ‘n’ roll fans. That crowd is a big part of what’s good to me about Asbury Park.
When I got started, a lot of interest was really plugged into this area as part of the territory of WNEW. It stretched to WIOQ and WMMR in Philadelphia. There also was a radio station around here, WHTG 106.3. Back then, they were playing new rock ‘n’ roll. This whole Northeast area from Boston to DC was very plugged in with lot of magazines and things, such as The Aquarian. There were a lot of radio stations. There were a lot people at a lot of colleges. It was a really good place for me to work.
Do you prefer Asbury Park to Nashville?
I got tired of coming up here from Nashville to play most of my shows. I can drive to Boston now, drive to Richmond, drive out to Harrisburg. This area good for me. It makes good sense just to live here.
When look around at the musicians in Asbury Park, like Todd, Rob, and Joe, they’re not country musicians, like in Nashville. People around here play the folk and rock ‘n’ roll that I play. The Nashville scene doesn’t appeal to me a lot because I don’t really play country music.
Has Asbury Park influenced your music in any way?
The energy of it has been helpful in my just keeping on and keeping at it. To facilitate someone like Steven Greenwell is a good connection. I don’t know if it’s influenced the music – it’s still folk rock – but certainly has enabled it.
How did growing up in Mississippi influence your music?
It was just a good place to be from. The fact that Meridan is Jimmie Rodgers’ hometown didn’t have a lot to do with my very early years. I was inspired more by things like The Byrds, The Beatles, The British Invasion, but I later discovered Jimmie Rodgers. That was important. He was the father of country music. He was a very significant synthesis of American music putting in all elements that made him popular. He had blues, Tin Pan Alley, and Appalachian stylings – a lot of that went into what I was doing. My inspiration mainly was off the AM radio, The Byrds’ Mr. Tambourine Man was a magical record that influenced everybody that was hearing it all over the country. By then, Steppenwolf and stuff like ‘Brandy’ by Hour Glass were out. All of these influences were going on all over the country. It’s harder to say if being from Meridian was unique to all that I listened to in the Top 40.
How did it feel to be nominated for a Grammy for your tribute to Jimmie Rodgers?
Well, it was really good and a surprise. We didn’t make that record with any scheme involved. It was just something I felt obligated to do because I’m from Meridian, Mississippi, and I was making folk rock records for several years. I mentioned that to Garry Tallent, and he said he’d produce. That was all I needed. June Carter passed away that year. She had just put out a record called Wildwood Flower. It was a no brainer that she would win because she had just passed away and had made a good record that I liked a lot. It was good to be nominated; there you have it.
After several years of not being able to record due to legal issues with Columbia, you worked with E Street Band bassist Garry Tallent on the 1988 Geffen album Streets of this Town. Like you, Bruce Springsteen was prohibited from recording during the course of a lawsuit. Have you ever discussed that stagnation with Garry and/or Bruce? If so, what insights did they give you and/or you give them?
I haven’t discussed it with Bruce, but I’ve spent a lot of time with Garry, and Garry really helped me get back in the game. He was curious what I was up to. He listened to the songs I was writing, listened to my band. We were playing everywhere as The Rough Squirrels. He took us into studio, which was Shorefire in Long Branch. There wasn’t a lot to talk about as far as not being able to record. What Garry did was get us in the studio and roll tape. He produced us and made that happen.
Do you own Rolling Tide Music and if so, were you able to buy back your early albums from Columbia and reissue them?
Rolling Tide is my publishing company one of three. Nat Weiss allowed me to put out records. I don’t have problem with Nat Weiss and Nemperor Records. I decided I wanted to try to be on Columbia, and that didn’t work out. It was no fault of Nat Weiss – he was a wonderful person. I miss him a lot. He allowed me to put out these records I made for Nemperor.
You have a distinctive harmonica style in which you roll the notes more than anyone else I’ve ever heard. How did you learn and/or develop that technique?
I don’t know. I’ve played lot harmonica over years. It’s just my style I came up with. Just one of those things I tried, and I just added it into my typical harmonica style.
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