Guy Forsyth rolled into Austin in 1990 with a U-Haul trailer, a fistful of harmonicas and a voice built to carry over a Saturday night on Sixth Street. He busked the UT campus and held down Sunday nights at Antone’s for ten years, until Clifford Antone signed him to his label. He has opened for Ray Charles and B.B. King, won Austin Music Awards for Best Male Vocalist and Best Blues Band, and joined The Killers onstage at ACL Fest. That’s not bad for a guy who started in show business as a Renaissance Festival stuntman getting thrown into dirty water.

His new album started overseas. Dutch fans, who have loved him since his 1994 live debut, High Temperature, showed Guy how hungry they were for straight-ahead Austin blues. Back home, he started sitting in with Willie Pipkin on Sunday nights at the Continental Club, and he fell in love again with calling out any blues tune and hearing the band whip it right out. That band, with Pipkin, Jay Moeller, Jason Crisp and Henri Herbert, cut Guy Forsyth’s Quick and Dirty Guide to Austin Blues live in one room. It’s Guy’s first release on vinyl. The lead single, “Burn Down the Data Center,” is a blues song in the oldest sense: a man singing about what he sees changing around him.

Then there’s Guy’s acoustic side, with banjo, resonator guitar and musical saw. He’s finishing 78 Special, an album of acoustic jazz, swing and blues with the Hot Nut Riveters, and a new album of his own originals is in the works, some brand new and some years in the making. When he paired four Hot Nut Riveters with four original Asylum Street Spankers as the Hot Nut Spankers at the 04 Center, the show sold out fast. That lineup is available by special request.

Tell us about your room, and we’ll tell you which Guy to bring. He plays solo for listening rooms and house concerts, brings a trio to clubs and dance halls, and leads a five-piece band for festivals and theaters. The Hot Nut Riveters are a natural fit for community celebrations, and his master classes bring the history of Texas blues to schools and libraries.