Ken Forrest

I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace).... Born 1957 in Lansing Michigan,Ken Forrest’s earliest musical influence was his father Lee, who sang and played guitar and banjo.Then the Beatles hit the airwaves in 1964 and brought pop music to the forefront along with the great soul music emerging from cities like Detroit and Memphis.Radio station CKLW out of Windsor Ontario, had a very powerful signal which could be clearly heard in northwest Pennsylvania nearly 300 miles away where Forrest was now living.CKLW not only played all the Motown hits, but all the other great soul music of the time.It was only a matter of time before Forrest started picking up instruments and emulating his musical heroes.Starting on piano without much success he quickly moved to drums,then guitar and finally settled on bass because no one else wanted to play it.Jamming with his friends,they built up a repertoire of rock songs that they could play at parties and high school dances. This was only the beginning.While attending college at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in Edinboro Pa.,Forrest played in bar bands and gradually built up his chops,but soon tired of the music scene which was dominated by bands imitating Kiss and the other hair bands so popular during the seventies.Selling his bass for beer money he began to grow interested in the non-electric sounds of Bluegrass and other folk genres.When his father offered to give him an antique Gibson mandolin if he would learn Moscow Nights he jumped at the chance and soon became the proud owner of a pre 1920,s Gibson A Style mandolin.Forrest immersed himself in the local underground bluegrass scene in western Pennsylvania.Forming a band with his best friend Jack Dillen,they began to build a repertoire of bluegrass music.After relocating to New Jersey,Forrest discovered the rich bluegrass scene in New York City.He soon began playing stand-up bass at the jams hosted by banjo wizard Tom Hanway and the legendary Greg Garing.After joining Greg Garing’s Alphabet City Opry he became bass player for the Greek band Magges.Magges with Forrest on bass continue performing in NYC and are noted for their unique style of Greek Rembetika.Besides performing with Magges,Forrest writes and records music in his home studio in Jersey.