Josh Fortenbery – No Such Thing as Forever
It would be hard to say that anyone needs to make music more than Josh Fortenbery does. He moved to Juneau, Alaska six years ago, finding himself in beautiful country effectively surrounded by water, meaning that any attempt to share music outside of the city would be an adventure involving a ferry and probably a combination of prayers and swears. The 2020 shutdown compounded the isolation – no travel, so no public playing of music. All of that fear, anxiety and sheer boredom made their way onto Fortenbery’s debut album. No Such Thing as Forever is a string-band record with sharp, no-nonsense songwriting that humanizes isolation and tedium and draws a line between Fortenbery’s everyday life in Alaska and our own pandemic experiences.
The first song on No Such Thing as Forever was, coincidentally, penned before COVID, but it does portray Fortenbery choosing a kind of isolation. “Bitter,” characterized by fiddle and mandolin interplay from Lindsay Clark and Andrew Heist, delves into the singer’s negative take on the internet and social media – “If you believe what you read online/You’re gonna die bitter.” Prophetic words, considering what was soon to come, as are “He can’t fix this with bourbon/Can’t sterilize his freedom.” Self-medicating is a theme across the record. The waltz-ish “After Last Call” is full of fiddle, mandolin and gorgeously mournful harmonies while Fortenbery weighs one last round against the fraught prospect of finding company – “Now I can’t go home, I’m too afraid to phone/You’re better off alone, but I’m worse off alone.” Booze as balm is also found in the slide-filled “Siblings” – “It’s cheaper than a therapist, don’t keep you in the house like getting high.”
“Siblings” also addresses the other prominent theme on No Such Thing as Forever; family – or, more precisely, missing them. Fortenbery is close to his sister, even through their now-massive distance apart, and she’s his original critic – “I still send you every song I write” (“That’s true,” as he notes in his bio, “except for this one”). And Fortenbery’s original role model (for both better and worse) was his grandmother. “Nothing” is a subtle acoustic and organ ballad, written on the day she died, where he lets his sorrow and sense of neglect bleed through – “I forgot to call you back, my everlasting shame/I was focused on myself so I rarely spoke your name.” But “Honey” is the true, joyful, and slightly off-kilter elegy to the person that Grandma (nicknamed Honey) was – “My decorator, terrorized waiters, an orchestrator of good mischief.” Not knowing Honey myself, I’ll still wager this song is exactly the way she’d want to be remembered.
The heavier side of family ties is found on “Heirlooms.” The dour, string-based tune has Fortenbery considering the traits he might inherit – “We all learn from our kin how to love and how to sin” – while also acknowledging his own responsibility – “It’s easier to blame everyone who gave me my name/Than admit I could change if I wanted.” But the singer’s not afraid to poke holes in his own self-seriousness. Album capper “Another Existential Crisis,” bolstered by a pretty three-part guitar background, posits that our time on Earth is both short and infinite – “‘Cause in several hundred years, when we’re not here/All our molecules are gonna be reused.” That pandemic stuff? Just a blip on the cosmic radar. But familial bonds, like those molecules, will last forever.
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: If I ever to make it up to Alaska (fingers crossed), I’d love to hear Fortenbery and his musical friends – dubbed the Muskeg Collective – perform their gorgeous cover of Juneau artist Buddy Tabor’s “New Fallen Snow” – amazing fiddle, mandolin and slide guitar as Fortenbery honors the late songwriter: “I have turned my back on the snow and the cold/And I won’t be back here again my friend, no I never shall return here again.”
No Such Thing as Forever was produced by Josh Fortenbery and Justin Smith, recorded and mixed by Smith and mastered by David Glasser. All original songs written by Fortenbery (“New Fallen Snow” written by Buddy Tabor). Musicians on the album include Fortenbery (vocals, guitar), Smith (slide guitar), Andrew Heist (mandolin, vocals), Lindsay Clark (fiddle), James Cheng (bass), Erin Heist (vocals), Taylor Vidic (vocals) and Steve Nelson (organ).
Go here to order No Such Thing as Forever (out March 8): https://joshfortenbery.bandcamp.com/album/no-such-thing-as-forever
Check out show dates here: https://www.joshfortenbery.com/shows