LEXINGTON — Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Steve Forbert will be playing on March 14th at Van Dusen’s in Lexington. While Van Dusen’s has occasionally hosted performances since its opening in 2022, the upcoming Forbert concert marks a new era for husband-and-wife proprietors Caitlin McColl and Will Sperling. “In 2025, we built a dedicated stage and pro sound system and have been doing one ticketed show a month,” says Sparling. “The sound system was designed by Mike Burmeister of Audible Difference, a Brooklyn-based pro audio company; they do all the audio for huge events such as New York Fashion Week and much more around the world.” The upgraded sound system means attracting national touring acts like Forbert to Lexington, an area of the Catskills that might otherwise have been bypassed. “In January, we had a sold-out show from Victor Jones, a TikTok-famous musician who is on a 40+ date USA tour, stopping at huge venues such as SXSW in Austin, TX, and a headline show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn,” says Sperling.
Forbert’s stop will be a part of his nationwide tour supporting the recent release of two acclaimed albums, 2024’s Daylight Savings Time and 2025’s The Things That I See, which is billed as the “10th anniversary remix” of Forbert’s 2015 album Compromised, which included the single “A Big Comeuppance,” and a cover of “Send in the Clowns”, songs that might carry some additional weight in 2026. Forbert’s nearly fifty-year career has yielded hits like “Romeo’s Tune,” induction into the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame, and you might even recognize him as Cyndi Lauper’s boyfriend in the “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” music video. The Mississippi-born Forbert came out the other end of a cancer tunnel in 2017 and released a memoir, Big City Cat: My Life in Folk-Rock, the following year. A songwriter with such an illustrious and long career likely has some stories to share. Sperling advises getting tickets fast for the upcoming show. “Van Dusen’s is limited to 50 people, so it will be as intimate as it gets!” For information about tickets, visit www.van-dusens.com.
