Last year soul and blues artist Ruthie Foster reached a new career high when her most recent album won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
Mileage is the singer’s eleventh studio album. She first began releasing music in 1997 and has built up a dedicated and loyal following. A career in music came to Foster later in life.
Hailing from Texas, Foster first got into music playing in blues bars in her local community. She later joined the United States Navy, travelling across the USA as part of their band that played funk and soul hits at recruitment drives. After her tour of duty ended, she headed to New York City. Atlantic Records offered her a record deal, but Foster wasn’t interested in being a pop star, so she turned them down.
In the early 1990s she returned to Texas to look after her mother, who was ill, and she found a new career as a camera operator for a local television station. In 1997 she got the record deal she wanted — one that allowed her to record her distinctive mix of blues, folk and soul — and she’s never looked back.
In the early 1990s she returned to Texas to look after her mother, who was ill, and she found a new career as a camera operator for a local television station. In 1997 she got the record deal she wanted — one that allowed her to record her distinctive mix of blues, folk and soul — and she’s never looked back.
When we chat via video call, Foster is at home in San Marcos, Texas, about 30 minutes south of Austin. Her office has guitars hanging on the wall behind her, and she’s enthused about her upcoming Australian tour.
Making her most recent album Mileage saw Foster forming a new creative collaboration with producer Tyler Bryant and his wife Rebecca Lovell, a member of the group Larkin Poe. Foster and Larkin Poe shared the same management, who suggested they work together.
Foster said she was intrigued by Bryant, who is in his twenties, but whom she describes as “playing like an old black man on a slide guitar.”
“I flew up to Nashville, wanted to meet him, got a chance to hang out with Rebecca, I’ve known the girls in Larkin Poe for a while. We traveled the same festivals, but she never said her husband was a producer.” Foster recounts.
“We got a chance to just hang out together, and we just clicked. We wrote a song the first day and then went back, wrote another one on the second day and wrote another one on the last day. I had two hours before I needed to be at the airport, and we’re still writing.
“I went back on tour, and then came back and we wrote some more, until we ended up with this album that won a Grammy Award.” she said.
Foster loved working with Bryant so much that they’ve already written more tunes and headed back into the studio to record a follow‑up.
Foster says finding a new writing partner is an interesting process — a bit like dating.
“It’s like a blind date,” she said. “I used to kid my nieces and nephews, when you put kids in a room and sometimes they play together right away, and then sometimes they’re kind of feeling each other out, it’s like cats, you just kind of dance around each other.”
Foster is now signed to the legendary Sun Records, the label founded by Sam Phillips and the first to record luminaries including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis. When it came time to record some additional tracks for a deluxe edition of Mileage, Foster and her team headed into the original Sun Studios in Memphis.
“Oh my gosh. It was overwhelming.” Foster said of the experience. “You know, there’s still a lot of the same wall structure, those particle boards, whatever they use to absorb sound, that stuff is still there. I don’t know how healthy it is to be in there, but it’s all still there.”
Foster includes a nod to the history of the label by recording a version of That’s All Right on her record. While the song was the debut single for Elvis Presley, Foster really wanted to honour the memory of Arthur Crudup — the blues artist who wrote and first recorded the song back in 1946.
“Tyler came up with it.” Foster said. “He’s a huge fan of Elvis, and so he thought, ‘what if we just do something from the Sun Records catalog?'”
Reflecting on her career trajectory, Foster says she knows she made the right decision in waiting until she was able to make the kind of music she loves.
“For me, I’m in the room I need to be in. I’m at the table. I need to be at, and I set that table every day.” she declares.
Foster has also spoken out about being a lesbian in the music industry and appeared in the 2021 documentary Invisible: Gay Women in Southern Music.
Foster says she’s never encountered any direct discrimination in the music industry.
“I’ve always been a different kid.” she said, sharing that she often hears the voice of her late mother describing her as someone who was just different.
“I still hear her in my in my head, ‘do the best you can before you lay your head to rest’, and ‘you got that one day to be, whoever you gonna be.'” she shares, noting that she hopes by being herself she can inspire other people.
“If I can be just an example, to give another queer kid in a small town… and if she is of color. She’s got all of these, what people would might call – strikes against her – but no baby! That’s what makes you who you are. That’s what makes you special.” Foster said.
Ruthie Foster is playing Albany and Bunbury before heading to Perth for a show at the Kalamunda Performing Arts Centre on Sunday 26 April. She’s then playing a series of shows around Australia.
Thursday, April 23 – Albany, Western Australia
Eric Bibb & Band + Ruthie Foster (double-headline)
Princess Royal Theatre, Albany Entertainment Centre, 2 Toll Place Albany
7.30pm
Tickets
artsculturetrust.wa.gov.au
Friday, April 24 – Bunbury, Western Australia
Eric Bibb & Band + Ruthie Foster (double-headline)
Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre, 2 Clair St, Bunbury
7.30pm
Tickets
bunburyentertainment.com
Sunday, April 24
Ruthie Foster – Perth, Western Australia
Kalamunda Performing Arts Centre, 48 Canning Rd, Kalamunda
7.30pm
Tickets
kalamundapac.com.au
Tuesday, April 28
Ruthie Foster – Launceston, Tasmania
The Ark (on The Square), 11 Frederick St, Launceston
7.30pm
Tickets
ioperformanceco.com
Thursday, April 30
Ruthie Foster – Sisters Beach, Tasmania
Little Sisters General Store, 1/3 Honeysuckle Ave, Sisters Beach
7.30pm
Tickets
little-sisters.com.au
Friday, May 1
Ruthie Foster – Melbourne, Victoria
Burrinja Cultural Centre, 351 Glenfern Rd, Upwey
7.30pm
On sale Nov 26
burrinja.org.au
Saturday, May 2
Ruthie Foster – Geelong, Victoria
Geelong Arts Centre, 50 Lt. Malop St, Geelong
7.30pm
On sale Nov 27
geelongartscentre.org.au
Sunday, May 3
Ruthie Foster – Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
Flinders Civic Hall, 56 Cook St, Flinders
4.00pm
Tickets via TryBooking
Tuesday, May 5
Ruthie Foster – Adelaide, South Australia
The Gov, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh
7.30pm
Tickets
thegov.com.au
Friday, May 8
Ruthie Foster & Band – Melbourne, Victoria
Brunswick Ballroom, 314 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
7.30pm
Tickets exclusively via Moshtix | brunswickballroom.com.au
Saturday, May 9
Ruthie Foster & Band (Two shows) – Melbourne, Victoria
Memo Music Hall, 88 Acland St, St Kilda
4.00pm & 8pm
Tickets | memomusichall.com.au
Sunday, May 10
Ruthie Foster & Band – Gippsland, Victoria
Meeniyan Town Hall, 97 Whitelaw St, Meeniyan
6pm
Tickets via Oztix | lyrebirdartscouncil.com.au
May 14, 15 & 16
Ruthie Foster & Band – Gold Coast, Queensland
Blues On Broadbeach
bluesonbroadbeach.com
Sunday, May 17
Ruthie Foster & Band – Central Coast, New South Wales
Avoca Beach Theatre, 69 Avoca Drive, Avoca Beach
7.30pm
Tickets via Humanitix | avocabeachtheatre.com.au
