Gifted boy really blows the blues
Forest Greenwood-Govedare takes a sledge hammer to that old notion that says you can’t really play the blues unless you’ve lived the blues.
Forest is 12 years old. He lives with his parents on a 35-acre ranch. They have three horses. Even the two dogs, Sweetgrass and Jude, are friendly.
This is hardly the luckless “my woman done left me and the gas bill’s due” lifestyle that comes to mind when you think of the blues.
Then Forest puts a harmonica to his lips. Age becomes irrelevant.
The notes he plays are soulful and honest and pure: liquid trills, lonesome wails, deep dirty bends.
Forest closes his eyes. His young face contorts with emotion, as if he’s somehow channeling the psychic energy of the old masters: Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Little Walter …
It’s a familiar sound, a sound born of a thousand smoke-filled juke joints and a million broken dreams.
A thoroughly American sound.
But don’t take my word for it. On Saturday, this long-haired blond bluesboy from Chewelah will take the stage at the eighth annual Blues Cats For Kids festival.
The daylong event, which begins at 1 p.m., will be held in the Spokane Valley Eagles, 16801 E. Sprague Ave. Forest will perform with Cary Fly & the Trapp at 4 p.m.
Admission is free, but it would be a shame not to donate something to this worthy cause.
Blues Cats For Kids provides instruments and music education for at-risk youth who are served by nonprofit organizations such as Crosswalk and Project Safe Place. “It does make a difference if you give ‘em a little help and a little push,” says the event’s organizer, “Papa” Glenn Clapper.
Forest began his love affair with the mouth harp as a 2-year-old. He spied a harmonica on a table and was pulled to it the way a magnet is drawn to iron.
Most adults would consider a harmonica in the hands of a toddler as a weapon of mass destruction.
But Forest’s parents are artists. They encouraged the lad to explore his creativity and blow away.
David Govedare is a sculptor of more than a little fame. He is known for pieces like Spokane’s beloved Bloomsday runners at Riverfront Park, the two magnificent feathers on Northwest Boulevard in Coeur d’Alene and those 14 steel horses galloping toward a bluff near Vantage, Wash.
Gina Greenwood is the lightning bolt behind the Greenwood Institute d’Art in Chewelah. The school teaches dance, pottery, water colors and even aerobics.
Being schooled at home exposed Forest to untold hours of his father’s favorite music: the blues. He soaked it up like a sponge.
But there is one other factor responsible for turning this kid into a budding blues artist. Just down the road from the Govedare ranch is the home of DC Black, one of the hottest blues harpists around.
It was Black’s patient teaching that helped shape Forest’s raw talent. He may be 12, but his playing has an unrushed, melodic style that is remarkably mature.
“It’s a real treat,” says David, “watching Forest go in his short little lifetime from nothing to where he is now.”
As Forest’s skills grew, he began sitting in with professional musicians like Tim Langford, Duffy Bishop and Lee Oskar.
One night at Mootsy’s tavern, patrons almost fell off their barstools when Forest, who was 7 at the time, walked in to play wearing sunglasses and a fedora. The blues is all about attitude.
“My back had chills a little bit,” says Forest when asked about his early gigs. But “it’s not that scary once you’re out there.”
This is one lovable kid, respectful and not the least bit obnoxious. When sitting in with older players he doesn’t try to show off what he knows. He listens. For a lot of musicians that is the most difficult skill to learn.
When asked what he wants to do with his music, Forest doesn’t hold back.
“I want to have the best band in the world,” he says.
Forest plays the blues, all right.
Oh, yeah.