It’s been 40 years since guitarist Steve Forbert released his debut album Alive on Arrival, and he has marked the occasion with a new album and a new memoir. The album is called The Magic Tree – a collection of songs, all but one of which have never been released before, including some he started writing back in the 80s. The memoir is called Big City Cat: My Life in Folk-Rock. In it, Steve tells the story of his journey from his Mississippi home to the NYC music scene in the 1970s, and the way his career unfolded. It’s a revealing ride that includes playing at CBGBs, opening for Talking Heads and John Cale, turning down being featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, and reuniting with a past love from the 80s in the kind of way you usually only see in romantic comedies.