CoronaVinyl Day 344 (F): Alive on Arrival by Steve Forbert

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "F," and I acquired two Steve Forbert albums in my recent stack from my neighbor.  Since I had no idea who he was until today, I went with his 1978 debut album, Alive on Arrival.

Forbert is a singer-songwriter with a folk pop leaning.  His voice isn't what you'd expect from his fresh-faced album cover.  It's almost like a folk version of Rod Stewart or Steve Marriott, with shades of Warren Zevon and Bob Dylan.  Alive on Arrival is mostly rootsy folk pop, sometimes more folky and sometimes more poppy.  It's definitely not what I would have expected from an album released in 1978.  Some of the songs remind me of kind of a slower, more country and folky Bruce Springsteen.  As a folk singer who plays the harmonica, it's no surprise that Forbert drew Dylan comparisons, which he respectfully shrugged off at the time.

Forbert has continued to make music since then.  His follow-up album, 1979's Jackrabbit Slim, was his most successful, reaching #20 on the Billboard album chart and producing his only Top 40 song on the Billboard Hot 100, "Romeo's Tune," which went to #11.  In 2004, he was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk, for his album Any Old Time, which was a tribute to Jimmie Rodgers (the earlier one).  In 2006, he was inducted into the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "Goin' Down to Laurel"
Presumably a reference to Laurel Canyon, where various musicians resided in the late '60s and '70s, this has some good harmonica and slide guitar.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "Big City Cat"
This is the most '70s sounding song on the album, which I don't mean in a pejorative sense.  Famed jazz musician David Sanborn provides the sax on the song.