Steve Forbert

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Comment by Tidewater Friends of Folk Music on February 18, 2010 at 6:38am

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 job as a truck driver, the restless singer/songwriter moved to New York City at 21, 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 and became one of the year's most acclaimed albums. While critics tagged him—like Bruce Springsteen and John Prine 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.”