Guy Forsyth

File Under "Stuff I Like"

Everyone who hears Guy Forsyth for the first time (myself included) says the same two things. One, this man is amazing, and two, why isn't he a household name? His voice is incredibly strong (strong enough to start "Play to Lose" off mic from the bar and be heard clearly over the crowd,) and incredibly versatile, yet there's no mistaking his voice. Forsyth can work an audience with a winning combination of wicked humor, incredible talent and true generosity of spirit. Timing, label-changing and myriad other changes may be at play, but the man and his band are due the spotlight.

At the University of Texas at Austin's Cactus Cafe, Mark Addison (keyboards) and Rob Hooper (drums) accompanied Forsyth and played to a packed house. In such a small bar it was easy for the audience to cling to every word sung and said. By comparison, Nutty Brown Cafe, which the band play a couple of weeks later, was a huge, open air venue with a welcoming dance floor. Well suited for a tuba, for instance - played extremely well by Will Landin (bass).

Guy Forsyth knows his audience and he knows his venues. Each show was different and the conversational style he shared between songs varied accordingly. Outdoor venues in particular, like Nutty Brown Cafe, gave Guy and the band the opportunity to really let loose. That night the audience responded in kind. The children at that show couldn't get enough of the music and danced for hours. Grown-ups waited for "Taxi," or "Tattletale" to get out on the floor.

The beauty of seeing Guy Forsyth and his band is that it doesn't matter what kind of music you love. As the title of his live CD compilation, Unrepentant Schizophrenic Americana suggests, there is no pigeon-holing his music - blues, jazz, rock, indie, folk, there's a little of everything. Rockers in the audience like to dance to "Taxi," rockabilly lovers go for "Red Letter Bible." Blues fans go crazy for "Lovin' Dangerously," and everyone loves the "singing saw" song "Teeth," written by former Asylum Street Spanker, Sick.