''Calling from a Country Phone'' is the second album by former Go-Between

Robert Forster Robert Wallace Foster Jr. (July 13, 1941 – October 11, 2019), known professionally as Robert Forster, was an American actor. He made his screen debut as Private L.G. Williams in John Huston's '' Reflections in a Golden Eye'' (1967), followed ...

, and his first self-produced disc. Drummer Glenn Thompson would later join Forster and

Grant McLennan Grant William McLennan (12 February 19586 May 2006) was an Australian alternative rock singer-songwriter-guitarist. He co-founded the Go-Betweens (1977–89, 2000–06) with Robert Forster in Brisbane in 1977 and issued four solo albums: '' Wat ...

in a reformed Go-Betweens years later. The album also features

Custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with Eggs as food, egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in con ...

frontman David McCormack on lead guitar.

Details

Forster had recently returned to Australia from Germany. "I came back with an agenda, because I had an album written. I wanted to come back and find some musicians in Brisbane, and I wanted to record it probably at Sunshine. There wasn't a better studio in town." Forster was unsure where to find local musicians. He said, "So I went to the one place in Brisbane where, if you’re a little bit disoriented, you’re looking for information, you’re looking for people – there’s only one place you can go. So I walked into Rockinghorse Records, and I said to Warwick Vere – who’s run the shop since 1975 – 'I need a band. I need some young musicians around town.' He told me to go to the Queens Arms on a Sunday night, down there on James Street. I walked in and there was a band on stage called COW. " COW (Country or Western) were a Bob Moore band that featured Dave McCormack from

and future member of the Go-Betweens and Custard, Glenn Thompson. As Forster's backing band, they toured under the name the Silver Backwash. COW had never recorded an album before, and Thompson said the practice before entering the studio was, "relentless - he had a real holistic idea of what he wanted.

Reception

Lisa Kearns, writing in the Melbourne ''Age'' of Forster’s ‘idiosyncratic brilliance’, praised the album as a ‘softly glowing, moody, and many-faceted concoction that gathers memories from the years Forster spent travelling the globe, from Los Angeles to Berlin.’Lisa Kearns, ‘Robert Forster: Calling from a Country Phone’ Melbourne Age 11 June 1993 p. 31 Andrew Stafford, in '' Pig City'', said it was "perhaps Robert Forster's most full realised work. Where '' Danger in the Past'' was brooding, even solemn,

his His or HIS may refer to: Computing * Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company * Honeywell Information Systems * Hybrid intelligent system * Microsoft Host Integration Server Education * Hangzhou International School, ...

was bright and optimistic. The addition of boogie-woogie piano, violin and pedal steel also lent the music a certain grandeur."

Track listing

All songs written by Robert Forster. #"Atlanta Lie Low" – 3:13 #"121" – 3:28 #"The Circle" – 3:45 #"Falling Star" – 4:05 #"I Want to Be Quiet" – 3:34 #

"Cat's Life" – 3:52 #"Girl to a World" – 4:18 #"Drop" – 4:08 #"Beyond Their Law" – 5:03 #"Forever & Time" – 2:48

Personnel

– guitar, vocals *John Bone – violin, piano, organ *David McCormack – guitar *Robert Moore – bass *Dallas Southam – pedal steel, acoustic guitar *Glenn Thompson – drums

References

{{Authority control 1993 albums Robert Forster (musician) albums Beggars Banquet Records albums