Woody Forrest on his Musical Journey

By Wadner Pierre

The streets of New Orleans have become a place where musicians from all over the United States come to play, whether to have fun or to make a living.

Woody Forrest A songwriter and guitarist arrived in New Orleans three weeks ago from his home state of Vermont.

Each musician has a story of how he or she embarked in his or her musical journey. Some have decided to perform at bars or at church, and others prefer to play in the streets.

Woody Forrest has embraced the second option.

Woody Forest is a songwriter and guitarist. He left his home state of Vermont to come to New Orleans to play as a street musician.

 “I just decided to take it to the road. And so I hopped on the Greyhound came down to New Orleans,” Forrest said

As many with musicians, Forest fell in love with New Orleans’s cultural diversity. For the sake of this love, he embarked on a musical journey to experience it for himself and to be part of this culture.
Forrest said, “Just the culture of New Orleans. There are so many musicians and so many different types people.”

Forest said he enjoys playing in the streets, not only to make some money, but also to get experience and to entertain people.

“ To get experience and kinda learn how to play for people,” he said.

During the three weeks he has been playing in the streets Forest has discovered how much street musicians care for one another.

The brotherhood of street musicians seems to be one of the things that strikes Forest the most in his journey.

“I'll be walking down on the streets…you know broke a guitar string and I run in to another musician and they give me another guitar string,” he said while talking about his own experience.

Forest is working at a restaurant in the city, but he believes he can make a living by playing in the streets, even though sometimes the risk of making enough money to cover his expenses is high.
He said, “Yeah, probably you just have to put more hours.”

Forest said he has no plan to leave the streets anytime soon.

“I don’t know. Until I get bored of it,” he said.