I've seen Steve Forbert about, oh, 50 times or so. Starting back in the late 70s and as recently as last year, he's always been one of my "if he's in town, I'll go see him" guys. Back in the day, he often toured with a band. But more recently I've seen him do solo shows. He rarely disappoints.
Steve Forbert was one of the several "next Dylans." You know, the folk singer with a guitar and a harmonica and a raspy voice. But Steve never really made it big - - at least not in the commercial sense. Sure, he's released a slew of albums - - including a new one in late 2015. And he's been very savvy in catering to his most loyal fans by releasing new live versions of his many songs. But he remains a hard working singer-songwriter, appearing at such places as the Bryn Mawr Gazebo as part of the Bryn Mawr Twilight Concerts, the Ardmore Music Hall, and the Sellersville Theater in the Philadelphia area, as well as in similar coffeehouse-like venues across the country and in Europe.
He's finicky at times. He, for example, does not permit folks to record him at his shows or post any part of his concerts online. But I did get a chance to meet him a couple of times over the years, once at an XPN fundraising event and once at a show that he did right down the street from my house in a church basement in Narberth, PA, and he was simply delightful.
There are a ton of Steve Forbert songs that are worthy of this blog, but, for today's post, since it's back to school time, here's a song called "School Girl." And the version that I found online is a really cheesy video from 1980. UPDATE (2/4/2019): This "cheesy" version was taken down from YouTube, so I've linked to a studio version of "School Girl." It's still good.
So here it is: Song 13: Steve Forbert (with his band) doing "School Girl."