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 Bearsville studios in Woodstock, NY. His mom heard Pete Seeger and Joan Baez play in her uncles living room in Boston when she was 17), 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 Wavy Gravy when he was 9, and studied drumming with the late 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. He’s played festivals from California (Strawberry Music Festival, American River Music Festival) to Europe (Belladrum in Scotland, Fiesta City in Belgium) and opened for such luminaries as Lyle Lovett, Bonnie Raitt, SteveEarle, Keb Mo, Brett Dennen and the Beach Boys. 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, blues, and jazz .