All Photos taken at The Post at River East
in Fort Worth, TX by Alan Mercer
Austin, Texas-based musician, singer, storyteller, and songwriter Guy Forsyth was born in the Denver City Hospital in Colorado on November 30, 1968 to Stephen and Vicki Forsyth. After a short time spent discovering that he and college didn't agree, Forsyth joined the circus – or at least the closest thing he could find, The Renaissance Festival. He got a job as a stuntman playing Robin Hood, getting beaten up by an actor playing Little John in an act that ended with Forsyth getting his butt kicked and thrown into filthy water. He has tried to work his way up in showbiz ever since.
While on the road, he would spend the weekends performing and the weekdays healing. He would spend his time practicing guitar and listening to music in the places they would go like New Orleans, New York and Memphis. On January 10, 1990, Guy Forsyth packed anything that would fit in a U-Haul trailer and drove south on I-35 from Kansas City, Kansas to Texas to make his fortune in the music industry. He found himself playing at Joe's Generic Bar down on Sixth Street in Austin, busking on the West Mall of the University of Texas Campus and anywhere that would listen.
Today he has played around the world, made 20 or so records, won many awards and helped define Austin music. Guy Forsyth is simply a one-of-a-kind original. He not only writes and sings his own songs, but he enjoys telling the stories behind their inspiration. He is a modern American Songster. Not one song is the same, but they share the same care and craftsmanship. No matter the tune, no matter the rhythm, Forsyth’s music will bring a smile and make the body move. One could even argue that he was made for this lifestyle—one of endless music and lyrical storytelling.
Blues made him want to play. Forsyth’s first works were electric, raw blues that held nothing back. When he showed up in Austin, he had with him a bandolier of Harmonicas and a carnival barkers voice that could cut through the noise of the busiest night on Sixth street.
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He found himself working his way up from the lowest working man blues clubs to Austin’s Blues Throne, Antone’s. Clifford Antone signed Guy to his prestigious Antone’s Blues Label after Guy’s band landed ‘an every’ Sunday residency that lasted ten years and winning The Austin Chronicle Readers Poll for Best Blues Band for several years running. Clifford Antone’s label suffered some trouble with the Law after being involved with a rather massive marijuana bust and, despite the records being critically acclaimed, the label went into a series of bankruptcies. Frustrated, Guy could not get his own records to sell.
Undeterred, he started The Asylum Street Spankers, an irreverent band that followed him in ecstatic, eclectic, theatrical acoustic display of American musical history, as if Rock and Roll had never happened that took Austin by storm, which was awarded best none of the above band and performed at the Austin Music Awards. While all of this was going on, Forsyth released a live record in Holland on a Dutch Label (High Temperature, Lizard disk) that made such an impact that Forsyth tours Europe almost every year, with North European Blues bands routinely covering his songs.
Over the years, Forsyth’s music had been featured, both live and recorded in favored pubs and bars of Austin, to movies (Waking Life and Hands on a Hard Body, to name a couple). To top his accomplishments, he won the Austin Male Vocalist of the Year Award (2005) and was nominated again for the same title in 2018.
Forsyth’s life is not entirely focused on music, however. He is a firm believer of working together to bring about solid goals and happier times. He played for Bernie Sanders and sang This Land is Your Land with him during the Presidential Election of 2015-16 when he was campaigning in Austin and is a firm and active supporter for HAAM (Health Alliance for Austin Musicians). To sustain his community on the most fundamental of levels he has taught Tai-Chi in Austin for 10 years to disabled vets, children & anyone else who wanted to learn for free giving lessons to those who wanted to learn, believing that it is a solid way to help center oneself and create balance in life.
He frequently visits schools to teach music for children, from instruments to lyrics; not just teaching them to play, but to understand the magic that is at their fingertips. Which is to say, the musician Guy Forsyth is a work of wonder; bright and eclectic as his music with a flair of “What next?” by the end of the day. With both his music and his way of life, he has us seated at the edge of our seats, waiting to see what will happen in the next scene.
The remarkable voice of Jeska Forsyth, who married Guy early in 2018 is the Yin to Guy Forsyth’s Yang. Jeska, a singer since childhood, started performing in 3rd Grade theater and never stopped. She once sang the National Anthem for Nascar and was accompanied by F-16 Fighter jets and ruled the San Angelo music scene. Jeska owned a Blues club in San Angelo named Sealy Flatts where she met her husband for the first time. Now they are co-writing material for her upcoming album, that people demand every time she sings.
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The Forsyth’s duo performance is what people call “intimate” and “breathtaking,” with Guys vocals only being lifted with Jeska singing harmony softly behind him when she isn’t leading her own tunes. Guy is no newcomer to the stage having opened and performed with such acts as Ray Charles, Robert Cray, Dr.John, B.B. King, Jimmie Vaughan and Lucinda Williams. Guy enjoys using the duo as a fun singer songwriter situation where he can become connected on a more personal level with the audience. Guy and Jeska are proud parents of 2 girls and are compassionate members of their community and always first to lend a hand.
I recently met with the couple at The Post at River East in Fort Worth for some casual and fun photos and an enjoyable conversation before their evening performance.
Alan Mercer: Guy, did you ever imagine you’d be an icon of the Austin music scene?
Guy Forsyth: If you wait around long enough, you become an icon. I don’t know if that’s true or not. I don’t know exactly what that means. I know I’ve had my picture on some murals, which is a great feeling. I’ve had my picture up in places that I play and that’s neat. I really love getting to be a part of the whole story of music. It makes me happy. I love my job and if I do it right, I get immediate positive feedback. Who wouldn’t love that?
AM: Have you always been known for your voice?
GF: I was a singer before I was a musician. I always liked to sing. The reason I picked up the guitar and harmonica was because I was already into songs. Nobody taught me how to sing. I remember when I was a little kid knowing that I knew all the lyrics to a song so I could sing the song anywhere I want. When I first moved to Austin, I had come off the road working as a stuntman in Renaissance Festivals.
AM: Oh wow!
GF: I was at a really low level. I played Robin Hood in the Robin Hood and Little John show. We toured through a couple different festivals. It was stunt work but more similar to physical comedy like Larry, Moe and Curly, sort of slapstick. I worked for tips so when I was in Texas for a festival, I went to Sixth Street in Austin and sat in and played harmonica with a Blues band that was playing for tips. That’s when it occurred to me that I could do that and not have to spend the rest of the week healing. With stunt work you have flips and falls and fake combat, so you end up with bruises. I was a much better singer than anything else. I was able to start working with some talented musicians because I knew how to run the tip jar. I could work an audience.
AM: That’s its own talent.
GF: I was playing on Sixth Street in a no name club with a no name band and we were able to earn $100 a man so I could get the good players. That helped my skills as a musician. When you play with people who are better than you, you get better fast.
AM: That’s for sure. Were you writing songs all along?
GF: I was writing songs before I moved to Austin, not a whole lot of them. I wrote my first song in high school. I wrote a dust bowl ballad for a book report on ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’
AM: What possessed you to do that?
GF: I was aware of Woody Guthrie at the time and I had heard some of his dust bowl ballads. I had borrowed a guitar from a friend of mine, David Maloney who lost both his arms in an electrical accident. He taught me how to tune it with his feet. True story. So, the first song I wrote was a dust bowl ballad for a book report and not a particularly good report, but I did get a B. (Laughter)
AM: You can’t complain.
GF: One of my first gigs that I got paid for as a musician was playing with a singer/songwriter by the name of Jeff Black, who now lives in Nashville and has written some number one songs for Country radio. He was the first person that I really learned to appreciate as a songwriter. He had a great palette for songs. He gave me my first exposure to Guy Clark and Townes Van Zant.
AM: That’s a good start.
GF: There were a couple other songwriters in Kansas City that I saw growing up. I remember when my friend, Grant Watts wrote a song about the challenger disaster. He showed up the next day with a song he had written about it referencing Icarus and Daedalus as part of the story. He used classical metaphor and wrapped it all up in a three-minute song. I was like, “Really!?! You can just do that!?!” So, that’s when I started writing.
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AM: So, how did the two of you meet?
GF: She hired me.
Jeska Forsyth: I hired him. I had a place in West Texas, in San Angelo called Sealy Flats. It was a blues club. I was a joint owner and there were ten owners. I did a work share since I couldn’t afford to put money in, I did all the booking and ran the grounds every day.
AM: That sounds awesome.
JF: Everyone wanted me to book Guy and I had never heard of him, but I got online and found his booking agent and had him come out a few times. We made friends.
AM: That’s the best way to meet.
JF: We were just friends for many years. Then we were both single at the same time and he invited me to come and hang out with him and I haven’t stopped hanging out with him.
AM: Jeska, were you already a singer before you decided to record a duet album with Guy?
JF: I was a singer. I’ve been singing since I was about…born.
GF: She came out of her mother singing. (Laughter)
JF: I did, I did. You can ask my mom.
AM: I believe it. You have the kind of strong voice where that is believable.
JF: Thank you, I have sung opera and choir and a lot of show tunes. My heart is musical theater.
AM: So, how did the excellent ‘Conspirators’ album come about?
JF: We actually started working on the album because we really needed something to send to purchasers to book us as a duo. We were looking at ways to make some better income and we thought, we could do duo shows. We would travel together and have the same hotel room.
GF: And you get to spend your time with the person you want to spend the most time with.
AM: It’s so logical.
JF: It sounded really good, so we just kept working on the songs and going back into the studio and re-recording them. It turned into something all of its own. We gave up the power and were seeing where it all went, which is difficult for me. I’m a planner.
AM: Lots of people are planners. You have to be in the middle and know when to plan and when to let go. How did you come up with the songs for the album?
GF: I collect songs. I’m in this business because I am a fan. I can’t sing just any song. It has to be something I want to say. It has to be something I’m attracted to for it to work. I will always share songs with Jess and she will say I like that song.
JF: He’s kind to me.
GF: Although it wasn’t intentional when we started the record, there’s an underlying theme about the second act. I don’t know if it’s obvious, but we are both second acts. We’ve both been married before. This is not young love.
JF: We are not taking this lightly. We treat this as important. We are putting the work in to have it go well.
AM: The opening cut sets the tone for the whole album. I love your harmonies.
JF: It’s a beautiful song.
GF: She’s a great singer and although you don’t hear him on the record, as he is not playing anything, Matt Smith, who engineered and was the producer for the ‘Freedom To Fail’ album that I made a couple years back, engineered this session and he’s got an amazing ear for harmony. We were able to come up with harmony parts working with Matt because he is brilliant.
JF: Matt’s voice is all over the album, it’s just in our voices. This was my first album and I was nervous, but I would go into the studio and Matt would break it down line by line for me.
AM: Can you give me an example of what he did?
JF: With the song, ‘Barefoot Waltz,’ I didn’t have a part for that song and I didn’t know how it would sound. So, the harmony on that one is all Matt Smith. He can’t sing that high, but he can hear it in his mind.
GF: He’s got a great voice.
JF: It’s just low.
AM: You all did a great job. It’s a unique sounding album. I can’t think of any album that it reminds me of.
GF: That’s cool. We originally sat down and came up with some songs so we could have a demo. We really liked the way they all sounded. We kept coming back to them and agreed they sounded really great. We decided, let’s do some more. We would record more and then we’d listen and say we can do this better so let’s do in and record it again. The songs aren’t multi-tracked. They are not recorded the way one often hears recorded songs these days.
AM: I agree. That’s what I mean when I say it’s a unique album.
GF: The dominant instrument of the last century was the guitar. It started slow but finished strong. Before that the dominant instruments were the accordion in the century before and the fiddle in the century before that. In this century the dominant instrument is the computer. It’s a massively powerful instrument and you can do a lot with it. I’ve done lots of recording and you can do magical things with it, but it leads you to a gear head mentality, where you try to fill every available space with information. This record is the opposite approach. It’s really like folk music. Not necessarily in the song choices, but it’s an acoustic instrument and voices. It’s the way people have casually consumed music for as long as we’ve been keeping record. It’s old technology. There’s nothing groundbreaking about what we’re doing here. Ironically, it’s an alternative sounding record because the approach is different. Hopefully it’s the purest representation of this thing that people have been doing for thousands of years.
AM: How did you come up with the name of the album?
JF: We thought we were being clever. (Laughter) I don’t actually remember how we came up with the title.
GF: Conspirators suggest something of interest, and it suggests a level of intimacy.
JF: And it was important to us to integrate me in the softest way possible because Guy Forsyth fans are hardcore.
AM: Has there been any backlash to you performing with Guy?
JF: I’ve had so much. It’s been an interesting road. I’ve got tough skin.
AM: Is it positive and negative?
JF: It’s both positive and negative.
GF: She’s my Yoko. (Laughter)
JF: I’ve been called Yoko Ono and the Austin Chronicle called me a lead balloon.
AM: That is total ridiculousness.
JF: Everyone has a sense of ownership of him. It is something I am slowly working through. I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that I am going to be here. People are just going to have to see that yes, I am younger, but I’m not stupid. I can carry my own weight. I’m not leaving. You can be mean if you want or you can get on the bandwagon. I’m a super hard worker and I’m going places. If you’d like to go, you are welcome.
AM: I wouldn’t feel bad. They did the same thing to Dolly Parton when she joined Porter Wagoner’s show. (Laughter)
JF: The audience booed her. It just hurts really bad, but it’s OK and it will all be worth it.
GF: If you have a positive experience with an artist you are going to go back to that artist because you want your pleasure center scratched in the same way.
JF: That sounds weird. (Laughter)
GF: If you’re an artist you are not going to stay in the same place all the time.
AM: Are you going to follow up with another duet album or are you each doing solo records?
JF: All of those things. We’re on track to release an album in April 2020. I don’t know what it will end up being as we just started but I will be on there in some way. I am also anxious to start my first solo album. I don’t know when that will be. We have a few songs for the next album.
AM: Songs you all wrote or outside writers?
JF: They are all Guy tunes right now, but I’m learning how to write music. I’m still gathering my tool bucket.
AM: You should do what you want and do not pay any attention to the haters. Guy, you are already a star.
GF: That’s very nice, thank you. You never know what you should do as an artist. That’s the thing about being an artist. If it was absolutely clear about what you should do, everyone would do that. It’s desirable to be an artist. People want that freedom and self-expression that you get to have.
AM: That is so true.
GF: The competition you have for somebody’s entertainment dollar or the time that they have to consume art is an extremely contested property. The best minds of our generation are doing everything they can to make your cell phone as sticky as possible, and not for any reason other than money. The saddest part of any of this is that whatever sort of critique we want to have about politics or individuals trying to control other people’s opinions about things is that people are exploiting this technology for pay. People need to make money. We have a very competitive civilization.
AM: Any words of advice to upcoming musicians?
GF: To succeed in this day and age as a musician, you have to hustle all the time. You also have to learn to live cheap and you can learn to live cheap. It’s definitely better for the world.
To learn more about Guy and Jeska Forsyth visit his web site https://guyforsyth.com/