Steve Forbert – Rocking Horse Head

The tenderness and longing expressed on Steve Forbert’s new album, especially the way he wraps these emotions up in his warm, sandpapery vocals, at times recalls early Rod Stewart classics such as “Handbags and Gladrags” and “An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down”. The record’s musical settings — electric folk-rock with country textures and plenty of kick — likewise bring to mind Stewart’s late ’60s and early ’70s albums, records made, as Greil Marcus once wrote, before Stewart “betrayed his talent so completely.”

No one will ever accuse Forbert of betraying his talent. For one thing, he’s not as prodigiously gifted as Stewart. But more to the point is the fact that, ever since Alive on Arrival earned him the dreaded “New Dylan” tag, Forbert has remained true to his muse, even when he’s ventured perilously close to anonymous roots-rock territory.

Recruiting Jay Bennett, Ken Coomer and Max Johnston to back him on Rocking Horse Head all but guaranteed that wouldn’t happen this time out. The band’s sympathetic backing on everything from yearning ballads (“Dear Lord”, “Open House”) to crunching rockers (“Don’t Stop”, “Good Planets Are Hard to Find”) is never less than inspired. Indeed, the record’s uptempo material would have fit nicely onto either Crazy Horse’s 1971 debut or the “Rockin’ Side” of the long-lost Nils Lofgren/Grin LP 1+1. Forbert’s lyrics are sometimes a bit formulaic (“Moon Man”, “Good Planets”), but on the whole, his latest may be his best album since his first.