Steve Forbert - The Magic Tree (2018)

2018 release from the veteran singer/songwriter. Big City Cat - My Life in Folk-Rock is singer/songwriter Steve Forbert's exceptional new memoir, co-written with Therese Boyd in which he most candidly reflects on those specific circumstances that first brought him to the public eye. Sharing reflections and journals he kept at the time, he weaves an absorbing narrative that fully addresses the trials, travails and triumphs that would eventually play out over the course of his prolific 40+ year career including encounters with the Ramones, Sam Phillips, Keith Richards, Doc Pomus, Levon Helm and other notables along the way. The book is accompanied by it's own soundtrack as well, an evocative album entitled The Magic Tree that offers a series of songs gleaned from previously recorded acoustic demos, augmented with new backing tracks and fleshed out as a series of songs that ring with the verve and vitality that Forbert's fans have always come to expect. Consistently upbeat and optimistic, they convey a firm sense that age ought not diminish a lust for living. Then again, that's been Forbert's mantra ever since the beginning: honoring his past while plowing his way towards the future in a mindful, soulful and revelatory way.