We were so thrilled to have legendary singer-songwriter Forest Sun live in the HPPR studio today! By the time he showed up, this guy had already been on KVII's TV morning show, Daybreak with Anthony Pittman AND Panhandle Primate podcast with Dexter Cearley. Now THAT is how you promote a folk show in a pizza joint! Indeed, Forest is playing the Fire Songs live-music concert series TONIGHT at Fire Slice Pizzeria (34th & Coulter) at 7pm.
Stop by, bring some cash for the coffers, and have a slice as you enjoy some solid Califor'New-Yorkified songwriting in the heart of Amarillo. Hear our full interveiw and his live performance on High Plains Morning here! Oh, and visit his websiteto sign up for the newsletter with exclusive downloads of his new music, too.
More about Forest Sun: Born in upstate New York to folksinging back-to-the-land hippie parents (Forest’s dad literally built the floor that Bob Dylan stood on at manager Albert Grossman’s Bearsville studios in Woodstock, NY. His mom heard Pete Seeger and Joan Baez play in her uncles living room in Boston and dated one of the Chambers Brothers before she met his dad), weaned on a diet of Jackson Browne and Toots and the Maytals, some of Forest’s earliest memories are of his dad playing “Poncho and Lefty” by Townes Van Zandt and his mom singing Elizabeth Cotton’s “Freight Train”. Forest wrote songs with Rory Block when he was six years old, learned to juggle from WavyGravy when he was 9, and studied drumming with the late African master percussionist Babatunde Olatunji as a teenager. In college he played in a band with SNL star Maya Rudolph. They opened for No Doubt at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz before Forest left to study art in Spain.
A pioneer of the DIY movement he recorded his first record in his bedroom in San Francisco with bassist Seth Ford Young (Tom Waits, Edward Sharpe) and toured Europe for the first time, including playing at the Rally on Dam Square in Amsterdam for the Tibetan Freedom Concert.
He’s played festivals from California (Strawberry Music Festival, American River Music Festival) to Europe (Belladrum in Scottland, Fiesta City in Belgium) and opened for such luminaries as Lyle Lovett, Bonnie Rait, Steve Earle, Keb Mo, Brett Dennen and the Beach Boys (Forest met famed Beach Boys producer Van Dyke Parks at festival porch jam and later swapped songs at his house in LA). Collaborations include the jam band scene (ALO -Animal Liberation Orchestra on Jack Johnson’s label) the bluegrass scene (Hot Buttered Rum), and indie folk artists like Jolie Holland. Forest’s songs mine his deep folk roots and embrace his love of gospel, reggae, Americana, country, soul, jazz and funk.
Sun’s music has appeared on Showtime and MTV and in several film scores and soundtracks. He has also had several cameo roles in independent cinema including playing fireman in “Who there?” directed by Cassie Jaye and premiering at Tallgrass Film Festival.
Having done two successful kickstarters Forest is releasing his putting out his music on Vinyl and releasing a new song each month this year.
Forest is also a visual artist and his original paintings and prints have been shown at the Sala Lola Anglada in Barcelona and the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art.
Forest resides in the Redwoods of Mill Valley, Ca when he is at home.
