“I’m glad to be so young

Talkin’ with my tongue

Glad to be so careless in my way

Glad to take a chance and play against the odds

Glad to be so crazy in my day”

Steve Forbert, “Goin Down to Laurel”, 1978

Steve Forbert isn’t young anymore, or careless, or crazy for that matter.

But more than four decades after leaving Meridian, the singer-songwriter is still taking chances, and playing against the odds.

At 63, Forbert is no longer one of “the new Dylans.” He’s been through a marriage and divorce, raised three children and weathered the ups and downs of a fickle music industry.

And, despite being sidelined with kidney surgery and chemotherapy last year, he’s stayed in the game, touring the world and sharing his idiosyncratic perspective on life.

Forbert’s latest creative endeavor isn’t another musical entry into the folk idiom. Instead, he’s collected his unique observations in a new book, “Big City Cat: My Life in Folk Rock.”

The memoir is full of stories about Forbert’s long career, from his early days of busking on the street in New York City to rubbing shoulders with music legends such as Doc Pomus.

The book, co-written with Therese Boyd, will hit the street on Sept. 14, but Meridian fans can preorder personally-signed copies at tinyurl.com/BigCityCat through Sept. 15. The books will be available for pick up from 3-6 p.m. on Sept. 27 at the Meridian Museum of Art. The book also comes with its own soundtrack: “The Magic Tree”, a series of previously recorded acoustic demos overdubbed with new backing tracks.

‘It was a lot of hard work’

The memoir, a collection of writings from Forbert’s journals, was originally intended as a stage play, he recalled during a recent phone interview.

“We started this play thing, and I wanted to give the screenwriter something to work with other than just the songs,” he said. “In case she wanted to go the Greenwich Village kid comes to the big city from Mississippi route. So I started writing some things, giving her an impression of what that was like at age 21.”

But 20 pages in, Forbert decided his musings would be better suited for a book, and not a stage play.

“It was a lot of hard work, but it was really fun,” he says of the writing process. “I tried to keep it really light. I did go off on some tangents, but they were very deliberate. One was to look at what is a song? Why do I love songs so much, and what constitutes a song? Then I went off on another tangent, being from Meridian, about my Baptist upbringing, and how I was tying to reconcile that with a lot of pretty prickly things that were coming out in the 60s on the radio….it was the counterculture.”

While the book was written from his point of view, Forbert hopes readers will also see what he calls “a snapshot in time.”

More Information

Meridian fans can preorder personally-signed copies of Forbert’s book “Big City Cat: My Life in Folk Rock” at tinyurl.com/BigCityCat through Sept. 15. The books will be available for pick up from 3-6 p.m. on Sept. 27 at the Meridian Museum of Art.

“Maybe it’s a portrait of anyone’s career in music – what is a song, and how did I get started?”, he said, adding that the process of writing the book differed from working on a tune.

“The book took three years,” he said, with a chuckle. “But, it’s not entirely two different worlds. Writing straight-out prose…I got the feeling I was using slightly a different part of my brain…the songwriting thing – it’s just more abstract, isn’t it?

‘It’s been quite an adventure’

Early in his career, Forbert found success with a trio of albums: “Alive on Arrival” (1978), 1979’s Jackrabbit Slim (which featured the hit “Romeo’s Tune”) and “Little Stevie Orbit” the following year. Since then, he’s released 15 more studio albums and maintained a busy touring schedule, with a slew of gigs scheduled across the country through next March.

Forbert attributes his longevity to be being passionate about his art, combined with a strong desire to stay creative.

“It’s helped that I really love it,” he says. “And once I got a foothold and was able to do it, I just kept working hard to stay in the game, trying to make the best records I could. Because that was my criteria, through the 70s, 80s, 90s and the aughts.”

Some might wonder if, 40 years in, Forbert finds it a challenge to stay creative.

“Actually, it is,” Forbert says. “Especially once you get to your 60s. Just look at the hard facts of this: when you’re young – and this is true for everybody – the world is new, and most things you encounter are new and exciting, even the things that hurt your feelings or offend you. Those are strong sensations. When you get older, you get better at life, so it’s not as jarring. So, inspiration isn’t as constant.”

Reflecting on his life, through its trials and tribulations, Forbert remains optimistic as he gazes ahead.

“It’s been quite an adventure, but I really just sort of forget the bad stuff,” he says. “I’m in the here and now, and I feel fine.”