STEVE FORBERT : COMPROMISED

 

  1. Compromise
  2. A Big Comeuppance
  3. When I Get to California
  4. Drink Red Wine
  5. Welcome the Rolling Stones
  6. Rollin' Home to Someone You Love
  7. Send In the Clowns
  8. I Don't Know If You Know It
  9. Devil (Here She Comes now)
  10. Time Seemed So Free
  11. Whatever, Man
    Bonus Tracks :
  12. You'd See the Things That I See (The Day John Met Paul)
  13. Devil (Here She Comes Now)
  14. When I Get to California
  15. Whatever, Man
  16. Rain and sleet and snow
  17. Katherine

Label : Rock Ridge Music / Rolling Tide Records

Release Date : November 6, 2015

Length : 58:01

Review (AllMusic) : In 1978, Steve Forbert was the fresh-faced kid with an acoustic guitar and a rack harmonica, a folkie with enough spunk to play CBGB on a regular basis. In 2015, he doesn't look all that different on the cover of Compromised, still holding that guitar and smiling with a sloppy shirt tail testifying to his enduring scruffiness. But Compromised sounds like the work of a much more nostalgic and pensive man than Forbert was when "Romeo's Tune" was filling up the airwaves. He may be the first person to try to give Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns" any sort of pop music credibility in at least two decades, and here he includes original songs about both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. "You'd See the Things That I See" is a sentimental but effective number about Lennon and McCartney meeting for the first time, and "Welcome the Rolling Stones" concerns the disastrous 1969 Altamont Speedway concert without mentioning anything bad that happened, a notion akin to singing about having a great time on the Titanic. Elsewhere, Forbert seems especially worried about his wandering eye and disloyal thoughts, themes that pop up on "Devil (Here She Comes Now)," "Drink Red Wine," and "A Big Comeuppance," and he wistfully recalls the past on "Time Seemed So Free" while trying to make sense of the present in "Whatever, Man." Compromised plays like Forbert's belated mid-life crisis album, but if his voice sounds a good bit rougher than it did when he was actually in his mid-forties, the grain often works for the material, and he's smart enough to phrase it in a way that meshes with the notes that have become elusive. Forbert put together a great band for this project, including NRBQ bassist Joey Spampinato, Lou Cataldo on drums, Kami Lyle on keys and trumpet, and Tad Price on guitar, and the production gives the music a warm, open feel that suits this music's balance between city-fied folk and laid-back rock. Most artists find themselves thinking about getting older before they hit 60, but if it's taken a while for Forbert to warm to the topic. For the most part he handles it well on Compromised, and what's here should please longtime fans as well as more casual observers.

Review (No Depression) : I think it’s safe to say that I love and possibly thrive on music, like a big ugly weed that has this gigantic root system. No matter how many times you pull, another one comes back a day later, only greener, brighter. That said, Steve Forbert’s obligatory calling card song is and will always be “Romeo’s Tune,” which was force-fed via every airwave around 1980, and it was a damn fine tune at that. I was one year old in 1980, and will honestly say that I remember that song. My memory came in the form of a strange mist around the eyes, a true ‘oh shit’ moment. Perhaps a fleeting feeling or memory of an impending familial separation. But despite what any scientific cat may say about a one-year-old’s memory, I remember it. And I remember liking it … my proverbial roots were spreading like wildfire. Whether you’re a fan of Forbert’s music or not, he deserves respect. He blazed his trail as a true singer-songwriter, a songwriter’s songwriter, earning his ‘comeuppance’ amongst the Prines, Clarks, and other original folk and country royalty. The Mississippi native is set to release his 16th record Compromised on November 6 via Rock Ridge Music. One thing I respect the most in a musician, more so a songwriter, is the notion of making the song itself the star. The lyrical story and melodies are the star, the writer and musicians are the catalyst — a conduit from brain, to soul, to ear. Forbert has been doing this since well before I was dropped on this Earth, and garnered legions of fans and followers along the way. Compromised is simply another quality song-crafting effort by Forbert and his long list of contributors on this record. There are a couple misses but even the misses leave a mark. That’s the essence of a great songwriter. The crown jewel of the album is “Devil,” hands down. It’s a jangly pop number that would find a home on Shakedown Street and Music Row simultaneously — a lusty tune about a beauty in a blue dress and the trials of a married man who can’t seem to shake the dark brown-haired beauty. All the while, the tune is carried by heavenly mandolin fills and solos, and some fancy Telecaster picking. It’s all about the song, in true Forbert fashion. “Welcome the Rolling Stones” is an obtuse poppy jaunt about the darkness of the Altamont disaster of 1969, complete with a cherub chorus — delightfully strange. “Rolling Home To Someone You Love” and “Whatever, Man” are drenched in life lessons that were just what this 36-year-old man needed to hear. Thanks, Mr. Forbert.

Review (KLOF Magazine) : Having been around now for 38 years, while he’s never attained the superstar level of early predictions (only his first two albums ever registered in the UK Top 75, peaking at #54 and only three of his 15 studio releases have made the Billboard Top 100), Steve Forbert has maintained a substantial and loyal audience to the point where he can now pretty much record what he likes knowing he’ll have a certain level of sales. And this sounds very much like he’s doing just that. Reuniting with John Simon, who produced his most successful album, 1979’s Jackrabbit Slim (which made #20), it’s unmistakably Forbert (that voice couldn’t be anyone else) while the music ranges from jangly folk-pop (Compromised) to blues (Rollin’ Home To Someone You Love) to jazz (the piano driven A Big Comeuppance) while the organ that drives along the midtempo When I Get To California has definite echoes of 70s English rock outfit Argent (there’s also a banjo bubbling alternative among the Americana version bonus tracks). There’s a lot of reflection going on amid songs that deal with future promise and broken hopes: the uptempo Welcome the Rolling Stones is sung in the voice of a young kid buoyed up at the thought of taking his date to their 1969 Altamont gig (and we know what happened there), the chugalong bonus track You’d See The Things That I See (The Day John Met Paul) has Lennon recalling his first meeting with McCartney (“he could be as good as me, so think about how far we could go”) while one harmonica-blowing track about busted dreams is telling titled Time Seemed So Free. But, ultimately, you have to go with the flow and take the good with the band, as wryly summed up with the jogging Drink Red Wine and in the title of the track that concludes both the album proper and the bonus tracks, Whatever, Man. Also appearing in two versions (the first with fiddle and the second without) is Devil (Here She Comes Now), a playful mandolin-backed fantasising spin on Devil With The Blue Dress . Completed with a guitar jangling, harmonica-streaked, organ-backed rootsy almost jaunty version of Send In The Clowns, the reunion with Simon isn’t going to repeat the success of Jackrabbit Slim, but it sure goes a long way to repeating the magic.