When Ruthie Foster opens her mouth, it’s hard to believe the little girl who started out playing guitar in church in Texas was more than content, as she said in a recent interview “…to be the person who backed up incredible singers because I was really, really shy.”
But 10 studio albums in, Foster has developed a rich voice that lives at the crossroads of gospel, blues, soul and country and has garnered her six Grammy nominations, with the most recent being a win for Best Contemporary Blues Album by way of her 2024 release Mileage. For the Lone Star native, who grew up taping sermons and regularly attending services in the small town of Gause, she’s just as surprised to see where she’s wound up.
“I thought I wanted to be part of a group that could really move people,” she recalled. “I wanted to be support, because I didn’t want to be up front. Little did I know that I had a knack for being up front because I had studied so many incredible players and singers in the church. Great guitar players—rhythm guitar players and incredible soloists, including my mother putting on Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, young Aretha [Franklin] and Dorothy Norwood, who was a great gospel songwriter—all of these songwriters who wrote gospel. I was introduced to all of that first.”
While sacred sounds lit the fuse, Foster was quick to embrace secular music once she focused on studying music and audio engineering at Waco’s McLennan Community College. There she transitioned from playing in black and white churches to widening her musical palette while getting a real-time education in the blues.
“I went to school for music so I was surrounded by blues, which didn’t move me as much,” she admitted. “Later on, when you have something to say you realize that the blues says it all. The first time really experiencing the blues was when Stevie [Ray] and Jimmie Vaughan were playing Waco. We got a chance to open for The Fabulous Thunderbirds when Jimmie was with them, so I got a chance to watch the band and make eyes at Jimmy down front. They would come through Waco at a time when my band, which was mostly Hispanic, was doing a lot of quinceañeras.”
A stint in the Navy also gave Foster further tools for her professional musician toolbox as a musician including “…learning the language of music, learning how to travel and learning how to be on the road and not lose your mind with 11 other guys and traveling as the only other woman in this herd of people,” she said. “I also learned a lot about knowing when to talk, when to speak up and when to keep your mouth shut and just play. But showing up on time, that was a big one.”
Over time, Foster’s role as a musical sponge has found her working with a number of artists ranging from the Tedeschi Trucks Band and Gov’t Mule to late producer/musician Jim Dickinson, the Blind Boys of Alabama and storied soul singer William Bell. Along the way, the singer-songwriter, 62, has accrued a stellar string of albums including 2007’s The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster, 2008’s The Truth According to Ruthie Foster and 2017’s Joy Comes Back, while dropping on an array of eclectic covers drawing from myriad corners of the music world including The Black Keys, Black Sabbath, Adele and The Meters.
For her current album Mileage, Foster worked with producer Tyler Bryant, who also enlisted wife Rebecca Lovell (one half of duo Larkin Poe) to help with the creative heavy lifting. Bryant and Lovell came back on board for Foster’s next album, Just Say Yes, which is due for release on Aug. 28.
The collaboration with Bryant and Lovell came out of pure happenstance that eventually found Foster shuttling between the duo’s Tennessee home and Texas.
“I was introduced to Tyler Bryant during the lockdown. Everyone is on YouTube and that’s where I saw him and loved his segment on Andrews Masters, his YouTube channel,” Foster said. “He mentioned Paris, TX, so now I know this guy is from Texas. That stuck in my mind—and the fact this 20-something little white boy from East Texas was playing slide guitar like an old Black man and I needed to know where he learned that. Fast forward and it’s time to do another project. My management mentioned Rebecca, from Larkin Poe, who is also part of my management. Her husband was this guy named Tyler. I asked if he wouldn’t happen to be Tyler Bryant and that’s what brought us together.”
One of the largest pivots for Foster in releasing Mileage involved leaving her longtime label Blue Corn Music for storied imprint Sun Records, which is also releasing Just Say Yes. And while it’s a bittersweet move, she’s left Blue Corn on good terms while landing in a situation whose history dates back to a seminal time in music history.
“I’m really good friends with Denby Auble, who is the president of Blue Corn,” she explained. “He’s my family and it was so important for me to get his okay to move in this direction. That was huge for me to actually be a part of this particular label [Sun]. First of all, I didn’t even know they were even still out there even looking for artists because they don’t have to. They’ve got this incredible archive of the greats. That was a huge, exciting part for me and a great opportunity to be part of this label. And as a Black woman, this was huge for me to actually represent another side of this particular record label that needs to come out. Linda Martell’s name has come up more. It’s great to see that.”
With Just Say Yes on the way and a solid canon to draw from, being on the road is a constant state of being for Foster, who plans to keep fans guessing on her current string of dates.
“I’m mixing it up on this go-round,” she said, noting she may debut some of the Just Say Yes songs alongside back-catalog material. “We’ll try to put it all in there and stuff it.”
Ruthie Foster plays the Fountain Blues & Brews Festival at Plaza de Cesar Chavez on June 27 at 2pm.
