Steve Forbert Talks About His Newest Album 'Daylight Savings Time'

[Music] hello and welcome to another episode of my backstage pass this is your host Lee simmerman and I'm here with my producer co-host and good buddy Billy Hubbert and today we're very excited very pleased to have Steve forbert as our guest hello Mr forbert how are things doing good they're just fine thank you good good it's a it's a it's a pleasure pleas to speak with you again Steve as we were talking before um podcast here you and I have spoken in the past and uh it's great to reconnect and uh you you have a a terrific new album coming out daylight savings time is coming out shortly so uh maybe let's start there how I daylight savings time are you telling us uh that daylight savings time uh is something you look forward to perhaps daylight staving Stein oh absolutely I I'm not a I'm not a big lover of the cold of winter yeah and um on once you hit that daylight savings time you're getting into a good good part of the Year yes indeed so so what in what inspired you to name the album Daylight Saving St well a lot of the record has references to Summer yes and and an appreciation of Summer and by the same token uh an appreciation of Nature and and so and you get that with daylight savings time you get that um semblance of an extra hour in the day uh we know they're only 24 hours in a day but with with the daylight savings time you've got a make believe extra hour of daylight yes and and I love that I love that and um so it it's all just a very looking on the the the bright side of things and the just the comfortable time of Summer and daylight savings time is like I say it's a it's it's a great concept very positive on the other hand the day when it disappears and it's so you're going into winter that's not such a good day for me but I love that first day of Daylight Savings Time this means you're you can you can surf for a while maybe literally some of some people but anyway right it's a it's a very dramatic change too because uh in the winter it can get dark around 5:00 whereas in the summer um I'm out walking my dogs and it's it's uh 9:00 and it's still daylight you know it gives me extra time to digest everything take them out so I I hear what you're saying about that yeah it's even worse in Nashville you know they're just barely on the other side of eastern time that's right yeah really yeah yeah yeah we actually uh we're sort of uh we're near Knoxville here so we're on the uh furthest Fringe of uh yeah of Eastern time yeah so it yeah it can it can mess us up a little bit so um Steve you you you have had a terrific wonderful catalog of albums throughout your career um there you know thank you well it's true you know beginning with your earliest albums through streets of the streets of this town America and me you more recent albums um well the basic question is how do you do it how where do these songs come from it's uh you know you have a wonderful Muse there that you are able to pursue so how do you how do you keep consistently reaching this High bar well I'm glad you think it's a high bar I think it is absolutely you know I'm just doing my best um this is what I set out to do and um I try to write the best songs I can and um I just U it's a cliche thing to say but I'm trying to put my best foot forward I'm I have I have to this point been fairly inspired by the the the realm of pop music and all things related even even if you're getting into old-timey records and you're doing a study of the anthology of Folk Music Harry Smith from 1952 when that set was put out or or I'm doing a tribute to Jimmy Rogers yes you know he died at the age of 35 in 1933 but all of this I'm saying it just comes on to this world of music and I've been inspired by it and continue to be so that's kind of your answer um it it's it just still works for me so you know you you have you well let's say at this point you received a Grammy nomination for best traditional folk album um you know you have a a very when I say a high bar it it's because you have attained that high bar you're in the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame uh you've had songs that have become standards to to many people um it's uh it's been a remarkable career and it's still a remarkable career um a question though is when you have a new album you're sitting down preparing a new release the fact that you've attain this High bar um is it ever like you know auspicious as well you know this album really was a high Mark for me I've got to reach that same level or is does the past Haun you in any way I guess that's the question you know um honestly the first two records were the most um well-received and they they were both very good records and a alive on arrival remains a special record for me because it captured that that autobi autobiographical time excuse me when I was leaving Meridian Mississippi and getting used to New York City and still writing a a record about that experience so that was a special record and and of course Jack Rabbit slim was the most commercially successful simply because Romeo's tune which gave it all that exposure so so those are always um those are always going to be I don't know if I'll ever hit that level of a popularity and and you know Buzz if you will again but there's always a comparison to that some some of the records you mentioned I I'm very proud of and I just still try try to do my best I'm just trying to say what will the reception be well I have to have a reasonable you know expectation at age 69 for this record which yes is called daylight savings time you can see that has a little bit of a an illusion to getting older and that extra hour of daylight is just it's good at AG 69 it's really good yeah they all want extra time yeah exactly guys exactly so that that's a little bit of a part of it but I I hope I've answered your question I'm bothered by oh I can't top the success of Jack Rabbit slim I may I'm just why why bother that that that hasn't been a problem for 35 years since then or whatever it is so I don't know as long as I as long as I uh believe in the songs uh I'll just I'll just keep recording them to to the best of my ability and still trying to make the uh I don't know let's just say a record I'm really have no complaint complaints about that I live with and I continue to be happy with it right right it's a challenge it's a challenge well I mean when I asked that question I wasn't thinking so much in commercial Tunes I was thinking in terms of your consistency because consistently made wonderful albums and I'll tell you this Steve when when there's an announcement of a new Steve forward album uh coming um me and a lot lot of people look forward to that that's something really to look forward to because we know it's going to be special and I'm not trying to flatter you but this album this new album is proof of the fact that there's a great justification and looking forward to one of your new releases because you just make wonderful music you know and uh you have done so over the course of your career so uh you know whatever the secret is whatever the aspirations are I think that they uh they come to the four here and uh it it's it's a wonderful thing it's a wonderful thing you know um well thank you well it's it's it's the truth you know getting back to the very beginning of course and I think you and I have talked about this you've probably talked about with a lot of people but you were given that label you know what that label was the new Dy all right John Prim got it you know a few people got it I would think that when somebody tags you as the new Dylan that in itself puts a lot of pressure on you too and it can be kind of like okay great what a compliment but on the other hand not so great because it's typ casting you in a way how did you feel about it what was it like at the time you know well I I couldn't just say um that it was just ridiculous because there I was in Greenwich Village with with an acoustic guitar playing harmonica in in a neck brace writing my own songs there you go so I I had to say that I could see The Superficial similarity thing yeah and and that a lot of that um greinwich village myth had drawn me to greinwich Village so okay and that would have been in the 60s of course when so much was was happening there yeah so that was part of the attraction to go to Greenwich Village and then but but I would add that of course I didn't think that there was anything literally true to it be beyond what I just described um nobody's going to be the new anybody but that's the way the Press operates and that's you look I I thought that U I thought when I first heard Elon John I thought he sounded a bit like Jose Feliciano I mean it seems strange to me now we'll have to think about that one okay yeah yeah that's that's the way it seemed at the time oh okay um but anyway uh you know to me Cindy laer was kind of a new Brenda Lee uh that's what I was thinking very very early on especially when she was in the group Blue Angel and and had if I remember kind of a blacked out beehive hairdo but yes but anyway so I didn't I but I had it in in some sort of um perspective I think and as as time goes by Bob just gets bigger and he he and more famous and it just it he he's just uh one for the ages and you're not going to be that and and I didn't in in back in 1978 I I felt the same way right you know U it was just okay it was a cliche and it was a way for people to um just say something really quick about where I where I was generally coming from so okay but that's about where it ISS you know you can't say uh you know yeah well you know uh I I think it it you know they were uh saying that because that was a a a fantastic record it's more than just another guy playing acoustic guitar in Greenwich Village with a harmonica I think that it was meant to denote the quality of what you were doing and you were new on the scene and and people meant it in a very good way I mean I can see how you would get pigeon hole by it and of course there will never be another Dylan but at the same time I think it was a a mark of how um how you really took folks uh perhaps by surprise and uh them thinking this guy is really special you know very special so I don't know I you know but I can see how it would be a two-way street here too the a yin and a Yang sort of situation with it as well you know yeah and I I tried to downplay the Yang yeah you know I I did and and and but I must say at the same time the company was good John PR had been included and lden way had been mentioned I remember those days and even Bruce rein had been mentioned so yeah yeah yeah so it it it was a it was a good Association in that regard um because it wasn't uh you know the association it wasn't a bunch of no it it it was the association was good I you know okay absolutely but there was a yin and a Yang to it and it had to be kept in perspective yeah yeah understood understood so you wrote A Memoir a few years ago as well big city cat uh you got to sort of that's right share the experience uh uh you know which kind of cool I I also read that you um you do cell phone photography cell phone photography right right I did a lot of that a few years ago yeah yeah um I I ultimately as as I think all of us pretty much have had to do I had to move on to the smartphone because it was just so it was just so necessary and so convenient and offered so many new new things um you know but for quite a while there I stuck to a uh an LG brand flip phone and I and I likeed that that that's been a while but uh I I was taking pictures it was as if I was on some sort of drug I I'd never been a photographer before and now I had this flip phone at my in my pocket at all times and I just went crazy with the with the feature of taking photos yeah so I I did a lot of that I I I think it's very interesting though because uh having cell phones now being able to take pictures with cell phones it's turned us all into photographers we can be at a concert at an event and you pull out your phone or God forbid you know in a moment of tragedy uh you you capture you can capture things on your cell phone as well so it's it's kind of interesting I found it kind of interesting that you kind of went into uh that Niche so to speak you know and kind of uh made it uh a thing you know cell phone photography you kind of uh brought it to the four you know kind of interesting I don't know I think it is hey great quality these phones are amazing man they are they are I was using flip phones you see I was using I I had not gone into the the smartphone um and and I liked the quality of them I I won't go into a lot of detail but the flip phone it distorted the it distorted the colors a bit and hyped them and it had a certain way that it framed the picture and I just used that that LG phone for for years and I did a couple of uh Gallery shows framed up some of these pictures so um I was having a lot of fun with it there for a while I still take it a couple of pictures a day uh pretty much and it's it's it's just it's just such a habit and I still see things that are beautiful or ironic or funny so yeah that's the that's the beauty of having this device with you constantly you can pour it out at any time if the yeah and the songs kind of the songs kind of um feed back into it and it sort of feeds into the songwriting and all it's all kind of coming from my own point of view um as a singer songwriter and as a as a guy traveling a lot and seeing a lot of different things I might want to take pictures of well I you know I want to ask you specifically about the process the song writing process but I think at this juncture let's play um let's play a song from the new album here um Billy what song do we have yeah we got one Le one lone Leaf pulled up here so oneone Leaf let's give this [Music] [Applause] [Music] B I'm in the moment I'm in the middle I'm in the mid to somewhere walking in the woods I guess I've known it at least a little this kind of walk out in the woods would do me good one long Lea came and drifting down and found me one on Lea is all let hit the [Music] ground one pleas of all these leaves around me one leave before they all turn [Music] brown I live for summer and what's my reason it ain't for freezing cold and rain and SLE and snow they're just a bummer those are the seasons and I'll be sad when I see summer St to go home one long Le came drifting down and found me one long Lea is all that hit the ground one long Lea of all these leaves around me one long Le before they all turn [Music] brown you know the drive here could drive you crazy you know the traffic lights along you'll hit them all when you arrive here it's loose and lazy and leaves are green until the fall says they must fall one long came drifting down that's such a terrific song too I I love the imagery the I love the imagery that you've captured in that song and again it goes back to the theme so to speak of the album about summer and you you you just capture it brilliantly so uh how how do you do this Steve I mean you've been you know you you've had a remarkable um discography over the years and it how do you come up with these wonderful amazing songs how do you do it what's the secret we all want to become successful singer songwriters s well I don't know all all I can tell you is I'm I'm working off inspiration and uh I'm grateful for continued inspiration that's the main thing and and then I would add that I don't really force it I don't have a schedule every day to where I'm I'm working three hours in the morning or some sort of uh okay regimen you know um I just kind of work on it as I feel like it and and let it just let it let it develop itself and as it wants to so there there you go um and it just you just have to let it come come at its own pace Steve that's that's the interesting I've heard talk to other artists before and and uh you know how if you get signed with a publishing you have to write you know so much but ever I feel like the best songs are the artists that take what they call a creative break I guess is a term and I I totally agree with what you're saying so I'll never look at one lone Leaf again the same now yeah no I mean the imagery it's just the imagery is just so uh affecting here um and and you know the other thing Stephen it's obvious to to all of us who are fans of yours your vocals are so embracing um you you have a vocal style that really connects with the with the listener it's it's so expr aggressive and that's something again that you've maintained from the start um I I guess that also came naturally as well that Mississippi uh background I don't know I I don't know I wouldn't say there was any anything I was trying to imitate at all no um but this show is easy to be on you're being very complimentary so it's true it's deserved I'm sorry you'll have to accept it I'm sorry we can't see you if you're blushing we don't see it so go ahead and blush I don't care it's all right but but okay well it's up as you see this on one loone leaf could it could actually relate to the the thing we were saying about the cell phone photos it could be a photograph of and I have such photos but this is just a moment of of a very simple organic inspiration out in the woods one lone Leaf came drifting down and found me and it's sort of like oh this could be you know this is just a little bit of a foretelling of what we all know is fall is going to inevitably come and you know the last verse is you know the drive here could drive you crazy yes I love that you know the traffic lights are long you'll hit them all yeah I love that when you when you arrive here though it's loose and lazy and leaves are green until the fall says they must fall so there's some Acceptance in this and that that kind of runs through this record I'll go and say it it is a record about getting older in in and with some of the uh allegories the the the the the the images that we've been talking about here yeah yeah so we're all going to be at long leaf someday that's yeah I I guess so not many people would see a lonely falling off a tree and makes be able to make such a beautiful song out of it or even see the makings or the potential of of a song from that and that just again I'm I'm going to compliment you again Mr forber you just have this really wonderful ability to uh shape music in such a way that it really it really becomes your own you you are like no one else and no one else is like you and that's what makes you such a treasure I don't care if you're blushing I really don't care but it's the truth you know and and you have some wonderful people on the album too you have gir morx on the album you have Brian house you have Aaron K playing drums uh you have a really uh um terrific cast of uh musicians with you here and um this was was this recorded um in New Jersey or or in Nashville or where where was this album uh uh recorded the record was recorded in Asbury Park okay Steve Greenwell is a producer um he produced the previous record which was called moving through America and he produced the previous one which was a cover record called Early Morning Rain and so to answer your question um these players are the Rhythm Section people I've worked with before Rob chor on keys and Aaron komus on drums and we brought in um Byron house who played Bas and girf girf morx played uh leag guitar but but we we we recorded the the basic framework of this record it's Steve Greenwell's place in Asbury Park and he's the engineer and he makes the record and um he's the he's the producer so he knows this record as well as I do if if not better other than the writing of the songs of course so the answer is Asbury Park and then then uh we had we went long distance with a couple of the players we know Aaron komas and we know Rob clores and they were able to they were able to visit the studio for a couple of days and and do all this but um gir gir morx I know and trust and he he did these things at his home which is out in Texas and U Steve had gone down to work with um um Gavin degra in Nashville and that's where he heard Byron house and he came back and told me this Bas player in Nashville is fantastic wow and uh I took his word on that and and we were not dis dis I was not disappointed so Byron house did his work and um he we didn't have to tell him anything he knew what to go with and he he he he only asked if there was if there were any things we thought should be upright base as opposed to electric base gotcha but U we made a couple of suggestions like that so that's the team that that made the record well I I the the arrangements are obviously superior but again the songs and your vocals um it it's just a wonderful meld all together it's a wonderful uh blend entirely and another wonderful um Steve forber album here which I I think is coming out what August 16th is the release date is that correct a well let let me be clear on that okay please because because of some of the um basic U retail elements of lining up the the um the outlets for to make this record available at the in the retail world and I'll go ahead and say it um Amazon and yes all of those digital service providers right to and and Spotify such we we've had to move the street date okay the street date is now not until September the 20th but I will have the records myself and I'll be selling them on my website with the date with the date you just mentioned so August 16 is correct if you want the record you can get it from me uh on the website or at my shows and then the so-called Street date when all these other things come into play won't be until September the 20th gotcha and uh hopefully radio will start playing it somewhere in there and play it and play it often yes so I'm glad you mentioned it that that's that's the real date is for me is August 16th okay well people need to go to your website anyway because you have a lot of exclusive live albums that can only be found on your website so fans of Steve forbert need to discover this Treasure Trove of of music that can be found on your website because you really have a whole cottage industry going there with these uh with these uh amazing essential um exclusive live records as well you still have a pretty uh pretty good stock of those do you not the live thing yeah that's yeah that stuff is a lot of fun it's it's it's good to have these Outlets um not everything is going to be pressed up on vinyl uh but it's good to be able to make things available to to interested people and sometimes we have a we have a show that I think came off really good and we have a good sounding tape of it and uh I'll put it out there yeah it's it's a great thing to to have there and uh what is give folks your website here so that they can take advantage of that what is your website well it's what you think it's Steve forbert domcom and there's also Facebook and Instagram and okay uh so you have the you know just what you would expect sure yeah we excellent we'll put it in the show notes it's spill f o r b e r t yeah Steve forbert yeah so we'll uh definitely tag that well well Steve it's been a a delight speaking to you as always um we hope to see you out here on tour you mentioned that you're going to be uh doing some shows in the near future um where are you going to be just uh give us a little hint of uh where you'll be performing in the near future here the next thing we have is a a suburb of Philadelphia which is called brenmar that's going to be Friday yeah brenmar it's called the Twilight Concert Series that's going to be Friday August the 2nd okay and um I'm going up to Ottawa and and Toronto soon and that's going to include Buffalo and I'm going to go to the Midwest in a few months and that's going to include um uh Indianapolis and it's going to include good old place called fish Geralds down there in Berwin Illinois south of Chicago uh in at the south end of Chicago and I'm G to be doing a couple of I'm going to do the xpn live at live at live lunch um that's going to be Friday August the 23rd that's going to happen that's I'm going to take my band which is called the new Renditions down to Philadelphia to the uh World Cafe Live everybody join us it's a free lunchtime concert and those are some of the things that are coming up I'm going to do I think four in a row starting with um Asheville North Carolina and going to Atlanta and Alburn Alabama and then back to Nashville that's all coming up in September so those are some of the planned things I'm I'm so impressed the way you have all this on the tip of your tongue you've got it all down you're very professional Mr Steve forbert very professional we we we Billy and I aspire to that level of professionalism too we try we try well well I thank you both this has been a most enjoyable and and and very complimentary for me I'm sorry it's the way it is buddy I'm a fan it's a treat for us man yeah it is Steve just stick around for half a minute Billy's going to sign us off and then we'll we'll say goodbye your outro here okay sure enough oh cut yeah big thanks to Steve forber man very cool and our host Le everyone of course Lee's author and a music journalist uh and he's got a new book out his second book out 30 years behind the glass by Jim gains now available on Amazon also please like share and subscribe to my backstage pass on your favorite plat one and we'll see youall next time happy trails and adios [Music]