For a “folkie” Steve Forbert has had quite a life, starting in the NYC punk scene in the late ‘70s and then having a breakthrough hit, “Romeo’s Tune.” (He covers this and more in his memoir, Big City Cat: My Life In Folk Rock.) He’s a cancer survivor, been on major labels and indies and had his songs covered by folks like Rosanne Cash and Keith Urban. He survived being labeled the “new Dylan” and once famously passed on being on the cover of Rolling Stone.

The songs take centerstage once again with Moving Through America. Filled with character portraits and quirky insights, the album unfolds like a mosaic of modern-day American life, delivered bysomeone who's been crisscrossing the country for nearly half a century. With an author's nuance and a humorist's wit, Forbert offer glimpses into the everyday lives of his characters: a dog from the sky's thunderclaps; a Houston man preparing to take his girlfriend out for fried oysters; a former drug dealer celebrating his freedom after incarceration; a road-tripping motorist steadily making his way across the midwest. Forbert inhabits each character, turning their storylines into first-person narratives that blur the lines between subject and scribe.