the best venue in northern england?

Subject: the best venue in northern england?
From:
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 05:35 PM

With thanks to previous correspondents this is just to confirm that Steve Forbert plays The Band Room on the North York Moors, Farndale, Nr Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, Friday September 9 2005 8.00pm (For directions see www.thebandroom.co.uk).

This is an intimate and magical little venue in one of England's most beautiful national parks - a great place for music and a fantastic place to spend the weekend. People are now coming from all over the country and spending the weekend in self-catering cottages, hotels, inns and pub and farmhouse B&Bs, which we can advise you about. Although we wouldn't argue it looks like a corrugate iron shed from the outside (and some people don't 'get' the candles and fairy lights, The Band Room is a fantastic place for music, with a magical atmosphere and superb acoustics by virtue of all the wood that was used when it was built for the local silver band in the 1920s.

We are principally alt.country with a bit of folk, rock, roots and blues thrown in. Among the highlights to date have been Allison Moorer, The Handsome Family, Michael Hurley, Laura Veirs, Kate Rusby, Mary Gauthier, Oh Susanna, Peter Rowan, Erin McKeown, Kim Richey, Balfa Toujours, Jesse Sykes and Hem.

Incredible though it may seem most of the above described The Band Room as their favourite gig on the whole of their European tours...

So...Steve Forbert, one of the great American singer-songwriters, plays here Friday September 9 2005 and tickets are now on sale @ £17.50. Tel [phone]. Please note that as the venue capacity is only 90 - 100 early ticket applications are recommended.

File under Americana, Rock/Pop, Country, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, and Soul...

Mississippi-born singer-songwriter Steve Forbert initially made his mark in New York City in the late 1970s, a time when musical genres were not so clearly defined and artists could straddle a line between the worlds of folk, country and singer-songwriter...as well as overlap, as Forbert did, into the city's nascent punk scene. (He often played CBGBs, spiritual home of the Ramones and Blondie, opening there for Talking Heads and John Cale). Anointed 'the new Dylan' on his recording debut Alive on Arrival Forbert sang with an intimate, soulful delivery, writing richly melodic and densely lyrical songs that combined rock, folk, soul and country. His second album, Jack Rabbit Slim, featuring the single Romeo's Tune, went Top 20 in '79...since which time Forbert has recorded a succession of very fine albums - some of them great.

"Music should be truthful and real, but it should also be healing and uplifting," he says. "Russian novels, film noir and Charles Bukowski are all OK by me, but as a recording artist I'm with Brian Wilson; I aspire to make music that makes people feel better. Life can be harsh and difficult, but we deal with that and we adjust and we go forward, because that's all we can do."

The following biography was released with Forbert's last album, Just Like There's Nothin' to It (2004)
In the past quarter-century, the Mississippi-bred, Nashville-based singer/songwriter has built a deeply personal body of work that's won him a reputation for clear-eyed insight and plainspoken eloquence. In the process, he's evolved from the wide-eyed young troubadour of his early classics Alive On Arrival and Jackrabbit Slim to the mature, bittersweet outlook of his more recent work, which surveys darker territory with hard-won empathy and deeply-ingrained rock 'n' roll soul....

Those qualities are prominent on Just Like There's Nothin' to It, the follow-up to Forbert's Grammy-nominated Jimmie Rodgers tribute album Any Old Time and his first new album of original material in four years. The lilting What It Is Is A Dream opens the 12-song collection with a moving ode to the resilience of the human spirit. "I Married A Girl" and "The Pretend Song" vividly document the heartbreak of a broken relationship. "I Just Work Here" and "Autumn This Year" offer memorable slices of life in an age of diminished expectations. "I'm in Love" and "About A Dream" close the album with a vibrant sense of hope in the face of discouragement. And "Wild As the Wind" pays heartfelt tribute to the late Rick Danko of The Band, poignantly mourning the passing of both an individual and an era.

Just Like There's Nothin' to It also features guest appearances by Edie Brickell, who sings harmony on three tracks; upright bassist Viktor Krauss; noted bluegrass guitarist/banjoist Bryan Sutton; John Deaderick, keyboardist in the Dixie Chicks' touring band; and renowned steel guitarist Dan Dugmore. The album also reunites Forbert with veteran session bassist Hugh McDonald, who played on Forbert's 1978 debut album; and E Street Band member Garry Tallent, who produced Forbert's 1988 album Streets of This Town and the aforementioned Any Old Time.

But it's Forbert's rough-hewn musical spirit and distinctive lyrical vision that are the focus of Just Like There's Nothin' to It. "A lot of it's about getting older and learning to take things in stride," Forbert states. "You can't recapture the highs that you felt when you were 16, and you're not supposed to. Hopefully, as you get older, the magic that you felt in your youth gets replaced by some kind of wisdom."

As a restless 21-year-old, Steve Forbert quit his truck-driving job in his native Meridian, Mississippi and headed for Manhattan with little more than his acoustic guitar. There, he busked for spare change at Grand Central Station, performed at Folk City and opened for the likes of Talking Heads and John Cale at CBGB, building sufficient local notoriety to win a deal with the CBS-distributed Nemperor label.

Released at the height of the new wave explosion, Forbert's 1978 debut Alive On Arrival mixed spare acoustic introspection with scrappy rock 'n' roll and became one of the year's most acclaimed albums. The artist expanded his audience substantially with 1979's Jackrabbit Slim, whose winsomely romantic "Romeo's Tune" became a Top 20 single. After two more LPs, 1980's Little Stevie Orbit and 1982's Steve Forbert (1982), Forbert ran afoul 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 longtime band the Rough Squirrels.

Once he was finally free to release new music, Forbert-who had by then relocated to Nashville-signed with Geffen Records for 1988's Streets of This Town and 1992's The American In Me. Those albums introduced a very different artist than the optimistic young folk-rocker of his early albums. The urgency of his new lyrics-and the rootsy, tightly-wound music that accompanied them-portrayed a grown-up struggling to hang onto his idealism in the face of adult disappointments. Forbert's trademark vocal rasp, once full of boyish innocence, now carried a pensive edge that was well-suited to the pointed insights of his new compositions. Moving to the Warner Bros. subsidiary Giant, Forbert continued to create compelling, emotionally complex music with 1995's Mission of the Crossroad Palms and 1996's Rocking Horse Head.

In 2000, Forbert moved to KOCH Records and released the thoughtful yet rocking Evergreen Boy. That album was followed in 2001 by the onstage retrospective Live at the Bottom Line and in 2002 by Any Old Time, a heartfelt collection of songs by fellow Meridian native Jimmie Rodgers that Forbert invested with the same resonance that he brings to his own compositions. This period also saw the release of 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.

Just Like There's Nothin' to It carries a soulful, organic vibe that belies its unconventional birth cycle, which began with an experimental studio collaboration with producer/multi-instrumentalist Marc Muller, whose resume includes work with everyone from Branford Marsalis to Shania Twain. When other commitments prevented Muller from completing the project, Forbert turned to veteran Nashville producer and longtime acquaintance Kyle Lehning, who wasn't available but suggested his son Jason Lehning, a producer/engineer/musician whose eclectic resume includes work with Bill Frisell, George Jones, Alison Krauss, Lyle Lovett and Dolly Parton.

"Working with Jason turned out to be a happy coincidence," Forbert notes. "It was the opposite of the normal way of working, where you make a record in a certain location during a certain period of time. We started in Marc's home studio in Neptune, New Jersey. I did some guitar-and-vocal tracks, which Marc fleshed out. Then Jason and I took what Marc had done and built on that foundation, and that became the album. It's not a process I'd ever plan intentionally, but it became a very positive experience and produced a record that I'm extremely pleased with."

Indeed, Just Like There's Nothin' to It is another personally-charged gem in Steve Forbert's remarkable catalogue. "At this point in my life," the artist concludes, "I'm, to say the least, not writing for a teenage pop audience. I think you have to be a little older and have certain experiences under your belt for these songs to really make sense."

Imperfect, as in human. It's what makes Forbert's songs so unique, so disarming, so universally true. Isn't that you or someone you know very well looking to rekindle love on "Rose Marie"? On that track and many others, Forbert can turn your head with just a whisper.

Recorded in Memphis with legendary producer Jim Dickinson, Evergreen Boy displays Forbert's skill at writing about everyday loves, losses, regrets, and hopes as well as his ability to channel the best of folk, rock, country, and R&B into his uniquely American sound. Woven throughout the album's sturdy folk-rock, one can't help but hear the sweet R&B grooves and harmonies that drive the opening track "Something's Got A Hold On Me," or get swept up by the soulful horn section weighing in on "Your Own Hero." What better place to bring all those influences together than Memphis -- a true crossroads of American music.

"Memphis still has a lot of musical excitement about it. Jim Dickinson insisted on recording there and he was right," says Forbert of the man who has guided the works of Big Star, The Replacements, and many others. Much of the musical excitement on Evergreen Boy is generated by Memphis natives Greg Morrow (on drums) and Dave Smith (on bass), two men who have established themselves among the finest session players working today. Also adding to the album's direct, honest sound is the fact that it was recorded quickly. "It was made under a bit of duress," reports Forbert. "You're just trying to get it right in a finite amount of time and you know the quicker you do it, the better it will be. That forces your analytical nature to stay out of it."

If you were to analyze Evergreen Boy, or any recording by Steve Forbert, you'd uncover a complex yet plainspoken character who puts his heart in each line of every song.

OTHER STRANGERS… Interview with Steve Forbert by Bill Elliott
Born in Meridian, Mississippi, in 1955, Steve Forbert grew up in the same town as Jimmie Rodgers, a fact acknowledged on his latest album, Any Old Time, a musical homage to the founding father of country music. But it was the classic retro folkie image of Forbert with acoustic guitar and Dylanesque harmonica rack on the cover of his debut album, Alive On Arrival (1978), which first grabbed the public imagination. The following year's Jackrabbit Slim album proved a commercial breakthrough, its tuneful single, Romeo's Tune, charting on both sides of the Atlantic. A heavy touring schedule followed, including appearances in the UK, but subsequent albums failed to replicate his early chart success. Instead, Forbert carved out a career as one of the most respected American singer-songwriters of the last quarter-century, teaming up with the E Street Band's Gary Tallent and others for a series of richly detailed and lyrically complex albums charting the intricacies of the American psyche.

Steve, early images can be both a help and a hindrance to an artist. To dispense with the most cliched and possibly most annoying journalistic question first, how soon did you become tired of the "new Dylan" tag? And was it any consolation that John Prine, Loudon Wainwright III and even Steve Goodman shouldered the same burden?

John Prine, Loudon Wainwright, Steve Goodman, BRUCE Springsteen, myself, a guy named Sammy Walker, Andy White in the UK; the list went on and on. By the time I was tagged with it, the term had become clearly a press cliché. It was, nevertheless, a nuisance, and, yes, I guess there was some consolation in the fact that I was in good company. Was Elliot Murphy also on the list?

What was your first experience of Dylan's music, in terms of a particular song or album? Were his albums easily available in Meridian, Mississippi?

I heard the smash hit Like A Rolling Stone on the radio and bought it along with lots of other hit 45s of the mid '60s. A few years later, becoming an avid reader of the rock press, I saw that I needed to find out what all this Bob Dylan 'voice of a generation' business was about. I started with THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'. It's still a special LP to me. With God On Our Side was a revelation. Hattie Carroll said a helluvah lot. Hollis Brown was 'a picture from life's other side'. And I remain extremely impressed by North Country Blues. (Imagine sitting in Mississippi listening to Only A Pawn In Their Game.). I guess this would've been 1970 because NEW MORNING was the first Dylan album I bought upon its initial release. (I'm pretty partial to it, too.)
Have you ever met Dylan? If so, what were the circumstances and your impressions of the man?

I met Mr Bob Dylan at the Lone Star Café in NYC that night he sang Blues Stay Away From Me with Rick and Levon. I'd sent him a copy of the Jimmie Rodgers biography and asked him if he'd received it. Later, in 1988, I opened four of the initial Never-Ending-Tour shows. I spoke with him then, but we were interrupted by a person working with me at the time. Mr Dylan seemed very nice.

In terms of the development of your songwriting style, how has Dylan's work shaped, influenced or fed into your own songs - for good or ill?

I think in whatever way his style influenced me, it was for the good. He continues to influence anybody paying close attention in our culture and no doubt anyone with an interest in seriously writing song lyrics. Look, he's the best and being influenced by him means gaining an increased awareness of the many possibilities.

Dylan has often appeared to be chameleon-like in the course of his long career, shedding the early Woody Guthrie jukebox folkie image for hipster rock 'n' roll poet and acid seer, before his post-accident transformation into a country gentleman, not to mention his late 70s Born Again phase? Are you drawn to any particular Dylan incarnation, or do you simply accept the man in his variousness?

The chameleon thing, as long as it intensely lasted, was and is intriguing. It's added a lot to Robert Zimmerman's charismatic 'Bob Dylan' creation. But for me the key issue is the material, so I just have particularly favorite songs throughout the decades, not a favorite Dylan incarnation. By the way, in the chameleon sense, David Bowie was the real 'New Bob Dylan'.
What is your opinion of the later Dylan, particularly Time Out Of Mind and "Love And Theft"? Do you value the so-called Never Ending Tour?

I'll try to be brief . . . It seems to me that Bob Dylan forced himself to 'wear a hair shirt', if you will, after his disappointing/confusing output of the '80s. If it meant releasing no new original material, or reinterpreting traditional folk songs, or touring incessantly, or God knows what else privately, then that's the discipline he set for himself. He managed to make his way through this regimen and got to wherever it was psychically/emotionally/spiritually that he needed to get to in order to produce the first-rate material on these two CDs. None of his 'peers' could do it. Several of them may be excellent (and more consistently satisfying) live performers, but they can't seem to write any songs that still cut to the bone and allow us a 3D sense of some of their real inner struggle at this (their later-middle-aged) stage of life. All things considered, TIME OUT OF MIND and "Love And Theft" are awesome.

To be honest, TIME OUT OF MIND struck me at first as being too unduly bleak. ("I thought some of 'em were friends of mine, I was wrong about 'em all." "My eyes feel like they're fallin' off my face." "nothin' but clouds of blood." "And even if the flesh falls off my face.") It seemed like the world-weariness of, say, an eighty-year-old artist instead of a sixty. After more listening, though, I accepted the emotional state and changed my mind. As far as the shows go, I mainly say, 'whatever.' I saw an excellent one here in Nashville a few years ago (Bob and band were joined by Marty Stuart for the entire show) and I've also seen some disappointing ones. Maybe you'd think most of the shows this month are awful or maybe you'd think several of them are great. Enjoying the show is, of course, a subjective/relative thing.. As we all know, the shows are usually sold out. People who don't know any better think they've seen a wonderful show or are just happy to be able to say they saw the legend in person and people who do know any better don't have to keep coming back.

I say what difference does ultra-informed, critical opinion of the shows really make if he manages, through this personal modus operandi, to create CDs that are the quality of TIME OUT OF MIND and "Love And Theft"? Down through whatever ages the world has left, it's the albums (especially the best ones) that will matter most regarding the artist known as Bob Dylan.

Subject: RE: the best venue in northern england?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 09:42 AM

Never heard of 'im

eric

Subject: RE: the best venue in northern england?
From: GUEST,Andy
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 12:54 PM

Me neither, and at seventeen and a half quid I don't think I'll be there!

Subject: RE: the best venue in northern england?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 02:35 PM

Phew! Pretty long-winded...

As an American, I certainly have heard of Steve Forbert. I'm not especially familiar with his work, and can't offer an informed opinion, good or bad, but I can attest that he's a major and generally-well-respected artist of long standing.

If he's completely unknown in the UK, it's probably about time that he starts making appearances there.

The venue certainly sounds interesting, but if Nigel had restricted himself to, say, 100 words or less, he might be getting more positive responses...

Subject: RE: the best venue in northern england?
From: greg stephens
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 02:41 PM

Well I think it sounds great...the enthusiasm for the venue shines through. However, I dont think I'll be going to the concert: what I really fancy is playing there. Be prepared for some Boat Band publicity, Nigel!