The Lackawanna River Conservation Association will cap its
30th anniversary year and RiverFest 2018 with a June 1 concert
by singer-songwriter Steve Forbert in Shopland Hall at the
Scranton Cultural Center.
A preshow cocktail party will begin in the Scranton Cultural Center’s Shopland Hall Lobby at 7:30 p.m. and the show will begin at 8:30 p.m. The concert will be followed by a meet-and-greet with Mr. Forbert in the lobby.
Tickets $30 are available Eventbrite, at the LRCA office and at the door night of concert.
Preview Steve’s music.
“Midsummer Night’s Toast” “Thinkin'”
Mr. Forbert was raised in Meridian, Mississippi, and after playing in local bands took his talent and guitar to New York City when he was 21. Like many aspiring artists, he lived at the YMCA on 23rd Street in then-dicey Chelsea and worked his way into the city’s music scene.
Mr. Forbert started out playing for change at Grand Central Station and hitting every open mic night he could before eventually moving into the club scene at venues like CBGB’s. At that time, rootsy rock was fading in favor of punk-edged bands such as the Ramones, Talking Heads, and Blondie.
Mr. Forbert’s first album, Alive on Arrival, was released in 1978.
Rolling Stone contributing editor David Wild wrote, “Now or then, you would have been hard-pressed to find a debut effort that was simultaneously as fresh and accomplished as Alive on Arrival. It was like a great novel by a young author who somehow managed to split the difference between Mark Twain and J. D. Salinger.”
Mr. Forbert’s second album, Jackrabbit Slim, was released in 1979 and included the performer’s most well-known song, “Romeo’s Tune,” which made it to #11 on the charts and brought the performer an international audience.
Taking the stance of a compassionate everyman, with a keen eye for detail, Mr. Forbert’s work weaves together strands of folk, rock, country and rhythm and blues as he delivers his take on life’s trials, tribulations, and discoveries with direct, honest energy and enduring optimism. He has released fourteen studio albums and performs over one-hundred concerts a year. He was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame in 2006.
Two of Mr. Forbert’s songs have a ringing connection to the Lackawanna River and the spirit of its volunteers and supporters who have restored it to health during the last 30 years. “The Oil Song” is a 40-year chronical of industrial accidents that have spoiled the world’s seas and waterways and “Good Planets Are Hard To Find” calls us to see the beauty and balance of the natural world that sustains our lives.
Critics and the public embrace Mr. Forbert’s melodic and lyrical styles. Always following his own instincts, Mr. Forbert says, “I’ve never been interested in changing what I do to fit popular style and needs.” |