With a powerhouse voice, Texas bred Ruthie Foster combines blues and folk with heart wrenching ability, and on ‘The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster’, she adds a heaping scoop of soul to the mix.
"Early on, long before I ever got into the folk thing, I was doing more soul on acoustic guitar than
anything else.” Foster says the difference between these genres is the groove. With the help of
producer Malcolm 'Papa Mali' Welbourne, she channels Sam Cooke on Lucinda Williams’ “Fruits Of My
Labor” and Al Green on the opener “’Cuz I’m Here”. She says of her Wurlitzer, “I found my Ray
Charles when I got on that thing!”
“This CD is what happens when all the elements come together and you just get out of the way and
let the groove go”, Foster reflects. “I learned a lot about just getting out of my own way.”
