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“If music that sounds as if it were naturally fermented from
the bayous, cricks and back porches of rural America is what you seek,
then look no further than Ruthie Foster’s Runaway Soul,”
says Greg Barr of the Houston Press.
If you can get over to the Dietert Auditorium on Schreiner University
campus in Kerrville, Texas, at 3 pm on Sunday, the 28th of September,
you will have the opportunity to invest the best afternoon and fifteen
dollars you’re likely to spend this year.
Ruthie Foster, with her manager/partner Cyd Cassone,
is the headliner for the Literacy and Learning Concert. Her songs
have been described as a remarkable hybrid of blues, gospel, roots
and folk music. Rich with honest spirituality and emotion, Ruthie’s
amazing vocals have critics comparing her favorably to Ella Fitzgerald
and Aretha Franklin.
Raised in Gause, Texas, a small town three hours southeast of Dallas,
Foster grew up surrounded by the soulful sounds of gospel and blues.
Musical influences include Sam Cook, Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta
Thorpe, Sarah Vaughn, and Etta James. But it was her biggest influence,
Foster’s mother, Shirley Jones, to whom we owe the debt of gratitude
for urging Ruthie to “Open your mouth and sing, girl!”
Mama was right! A rousing favorite at the Kerrville Folk Festival,
she stole the show when performing at Willie Nelson’s Fourth
of July Picnic, and toured with the U.S. Navy band, Pride, for five
years. As Richard Skanse wrote for the Texas Music Magazine, “Ruthie
Foster’s voice is so full of hallelujah, you sometimes have
to listen to her songs two or three times before you realize she’s
singing the blues.” Or, as she puts it in Runaway Soul,
the title track to her third album of the same name, “I believe
my soul’s found a happy home, and left me waiting here to suffer
on my own.”
Her two previous albums, Full Circle (1997) and Crossover (1999),
are full of her own life. Small Town Blues, Lost in the City, and
Home are universal messages that stir the ineffable in all of us.
Her determination to make a decent life is expressed beautifully in
The Fight, and life lessons learned are woven into the powerful Heal
Yourself and Full Circle. Another Rain Song and Real Love are thoughtful
ballads that bring understanding through introspection.
The Literacy and Learning Concert is a fundraiser for the Wayne Kennemer
Scholarship Fund of the Texas Heritage Music Foundation, which provides
an annual scholarship to promising newcomers who have a passion for
music. The Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving
and perpetuating the Texas music tradition, tracing influences and
patterns of Texas music and documenting the role music plays in society.
And Ruthie Foster is one of those rare Texas originals for whom all
the Foundation’s goals were meant. Proceeds are split with Families
and Literacy, a local organization making a difference in this community.
Ruthie’s music incorporates all the traditional basics: blues,
gospel, roots, folk, country – it’s all there. But the
ultimate product is an original sound that is wholly her own. Comparisons
to Ella and Aretha can only be made in the sense of the power of her
voice and convictions. Ruthie is an original. Just about the time
you think you have a handle on a phrase or verse, you realize she
has moved on to something else altogether.
The simple truth is that failure to take advantage of this appearance
in Kerrville, Texas on Sunday, the 28th of September, means odds against
you ever having the chance again. Her touring schedule is such that,
unless you travel far and often, you’re unlikely to see her
perform in a live venue. She will headline the Dietert Auditorium
stage starting at 3 pm, on the Schreiner University campus. Come listen
and see for yourself that Foster cares for the blues. And life. She
will make you care, too. |
