Tom Forsey got serious about music at 14.

His parents’ eclectic record collection inspired him, which led to them buying an acoustic guitar for the New Castle, Pa. teenager, which led him to pick up lessons again with a local teacher — to which he this time devoted commitment, energy and passion.

He still has that guitar, a Yamaha FG 345. It’s been worn and overhauled, first used to figure out the Johnny Cash and John Denver songs his Mom and Dad would play around the house, later being played while writing his own songs in college.

His songwriting efforts while away at Clarion University outside of Pittsburgh came us much from uncertainty about his future as from any desire to be a musician — “It was not knowing what the hell I was going to do with myself,” is the way Forsey describes his motivation to join a cover band in the late 1980s.

They played all the popular stuff of the time: John Mellencamp, some blues, 1970s folk and the “California sound” of the Eagles. They won some competitions, and Forsey began looking to expand his classic rock vocabulary. He returned to the singer/songwriter accoustic sounds that initially inspired him. Lyrics followed, tentative steps to match words with the chord progressions and pickings in his head and hands.

After college he recorded some tracks with two friends. The two would relocate to Music Row in Nashville, but the experience stayed with Forsey: Even if he had to work a full-time job (a “real” job), his music would never be relegated to a permanent back seat. “That was kind of the bridge from college and moving down to Maryland,” where he lives, works, writes and plays today.

He gigged sporadically throughout the 1990s, and kept writing and recording songs on a four-track recorder. He had at least 20 finished songs when he met Terry Mettam, a well-known local guitarist, at a Bethesda music store. Mettam would become a key collaborator for Forsey, encouraging his songwriting and plugging him into the local music scene.

Forsey continues to write, record, perform and maintain his friendships with many diverse, highly skilled musicians he’s worked with over the years, fleshing out his roots-rock songs. Forsey’s released three albums: Another Chapter Down, To the Core and his latest, The Simple Things, a stripped-down recording Forsey describes as an attempt at “getting back to the frame of mind and feel of when you first create an idea.”

Written by Rob Terry