Here’s a guy that has a lot of potential as a singer/songwriter in the jazz vernacular. East Coaster Liam Forde delivers quirky lyrics in cleverly and almost spontaneously felt arrangement, backed up by the flexible team of Zachary Eldridge/dr, Chris Bonner/b, Adam Stoler-Fladimir Medail/g, Matt Owens/tp, Geoff Countryman/sax, Rick Parker/tb, David Farrell Melton/org, Joel Thompson/synth and a strings section of Kristine Kruta, Erica Swindell and Will Curry. His voice has a dash of Broadway clarity, a hint of Mark Murphy, but with a punk sensibility not unlike Modern Lover Jonathan Richmond. The songs? Well, “nerdy” is only a start, with songs entitled “Geraniums” and “Tomatoes in August” about gardening techniques, but with a tender and cool musical pulse. A story is read that is half Broadway, half Better Homes and Gardens in “Mrs. Dudley” while Dave Frishberg meets Lorraine Feather in the clever “Plaza Hotel”. A Jack Jones pop feel is with horns and synth on “I Don’t Know” and waltzing bohemia takes place on “Paris When It’s Grey”. Music for being stuck in study hall.