Gary James' Interview With
Steve Forbert



He's a singer, a songwriter and an author. He was inducted into the Mississippi Music Hall Of Fame in 2006. His songs have been recorded by people like Keith Urban, Roseanne Cash and Marty Stuart. In 2018 his autobiography, Big City Cat: My Life In Folk Rock was published. The man we are talking about is Mr. Steve Forbert.

Q - Steve, what struck me about your songwriting is you're telling a story. There's an emphasis on your words. That's a lost art. Today a song will consist of a phrase repeated over and over again. The quality of songwriting has gone down. And what's worse is no one seems to care. Would you agree?

A - Well, if you're talking about what the public is presented with as the sound of today, the Billboard popular recordings as measured by streams or whatever, yeah. It's certainly not a case of telling any story or particular narrative anymore. That's the way it has changed with the changing times. It's like you said, nobody seems to care, so there. It's all very streamlined now and of course the technology has changed the sound of the records and the way they're made. As Mick Jagger said a couple of decades ago, "People move differently." He was talking about then. People move and respond differently to the world now. So, this is the sound and this is the style today in a world where people are a lot more distracted and have shorter attention spans. You have to conclude that you can't argue with the evidence. If millions of people want to stream Lil' Pump, a song about Gucci Gang, there you go.

Q - You've recorded quite a few albums in your career. Last time I checked it was nineteen. That suggests to me you're always writing. But if you're touring steadily, how do you maintain that balance? Where does the time come from to write?

A - Well, I got some work done a little while ago, a few weeks ago, and then I took off on a two week tour of the mid-west. While I'm touring if I get an idea, a musical idea or some sort of lyrical phrase, I make a note of it. But I do find I get more done when I'm not involved in other things of course. I'm remixing "Streets Of This Town" lately and it's been a bit time consuming, but very rewarding. I'm remixing one called "Rocking Horse Head" also. These are just sort of labors of love 'cause I just wanted the records to be available even if it's only digitally, but we may put them out on physical in just sort of a simplified version of those two records. So, I'm digressing here, but there are some things that take up time other than touring. But when I'm not busy with things like that I can focus and I'm naturally focused on writings songs. My mind will just gravitate that way. In conclusion, I'm not under the pressure I was in the late '70s, early '80s, to put out a record at least every year. So, that's good. If they come along more slowly and I have to take more time on the songs in order to make myself say this is done, it's good, I'm willing to sing this for people. I'm willing to record it. Then so be it. So, it kind of works. I'm 66 now. I don't know. I'm a legacy artist or whatever.

Q - A survivor.

A - A survivor in the Americana genre. So, I'm not under pressure to put stuff out real frequently. In fact, It's a bad idea. (laughs) It's so crowded out there. So, there's no real pressure. The pressure is just to keep the quality of the songs up in my own evaluation.

Q - Do you have your own record label?

A - No. I record for a label called Blue Rose Music.

Q - I initially thought that was a publishing company, but it's a record company as well?

A - Yeah.

Q - You started writing songs when you were how old, 17?

A - Yeah, pretty consistently at age 17.

Q - How did you do that? Did you just wake up one day and say, "I feel like I can write a song."?

A - I guess so. Pick up a guitar and that's what a person would do.

Q - Were you in a band at that time?

A - Yeah. I was totally in bands and learning songs by everybody from Procol Harum to Edgar Winter. You name it.

Q - So, you had some understanding of how a good song should sound?

A - That's right. Playing in cover bands did me a lot of good. And so then I just sort of wanted to write some songs on my own.

Q - Not every musician in a cover band can sit down and write an original songs, much less an original song that becomes a hit.

A - Well, there you go. I worked at it for quite awhile. There were songs I wrote that I threw away and said they weren't good enough even as late as '77 in New York City. So, I tried to set the bar high for myself and just kept working at it until I got consistently happy with what I was doing. At that point I would be taking the trip to New York City to try and get it all together and get a record deal and all that stuff that's in my book, Big City Cat.

Q - Were there a lot of places for you and your buddies to play in Meridina, Mississippi?

A - Yeah. I think any other town in the late '60s, early '70s would offer the same kind of thing. So, it wasn't like it was an unusual Beale Street kind of hotbed of musical activity. There were places to play and there were guys around that played drums and keys and bass and lead guitar. Just like any other town, be it Athens, Georgia or Springfield, Missouri, you could put together a band. A Rock 'n' Roll band for sure.

Official Website: www.SteveForbert.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.



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