ABSTRACT
Steve Forbert arrived in New York City from Mississippi on a musical mission, a wide-eyed 21-year-old idealist, heroically displaying 'Huck Finn's savvy tempered with Tom Sawyer's sense of purpose'. Forbert shares the same hometown with Jimmie Rodgers, 'the Father of Country music'. In 2002, Forbert's tribute to Rodgers, Any Old Time, earned a Grammy nomination in the Contemporary Folk category. Forbert gravitated to Greenwich Village and its flourishing club circuit. Forbert dismisses the suggestion that his aggressive acoustic guitar playing is 'anti-punk' or 'folk punk'. After considering several record company offers, Forbert signed with Nat Weiss and Nemperor Records, a division of the Epic label. The first five songs on the retro release of early Forbert recordings, Young Guitar Days, were culled from the Alive on Arrival sessions. Alive on Arrival has a journal-like quality, each of the ten songs an entry loosely linked into a narrative that is more observational than overwrought confessional.
