Blues artist Ruthie Foster is ready to share ‘the details behind the truth’
The Grammy-nominated singer songwriter visits Massachusetts for two shows leading up to her Aug. 23 album release
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Ruthie Foster’s career spans three decades. The blues musician has released nine studio albums, five of which were nominated for Grammy Awards, played stages in dozens of states, and received seven Blues Music Awards and a Living Blues Critics’ Poll Award. Even with myriad accomplishments and a range of experience under her belt, Foster still has more in her.
“I’m always looking for that something else … something new to say,” Foster said in an interview.
In her 10th studio album, “Mileage,” she takes an opportunity to tell her life story. The forthcoming record, scheduled to go live on Aug. 23, is a reflection on her triumphs and losses, and it goes “into the details behind the truth,” she said. Ahead of its release, Foster will make a pit stop in Massachusetts during her nationwide tour, taking the stage at the Payomet Performing Arts Center in North Truro on Aug. 1 and the Spire Center for Performing Arts in Plymouth on Aug. 2.
Being in the spotlight wasn’t exactly what Foster imagined for herself when she was a young girl. She knew she wanted to “be in front of people and to do something really cool,” she said, but she didn’t envision being the center of attention.
“For me, it was about backing up a great,” she said. “I just wanted to be a piano player or guitar player, be part of something really huge.”
Somehow she ended up in the limelight anyway, even duetting with the likes of Susan Tedeschi and Bonnie Raitt.
Foster, 60, grew up in Gause, a small town in central Texas. Her household, filled with people who were singers or lovers of music, echoed with gospel songs. Through “osmosis,” she said, it wasn’t long before she caught the bug and developed a passion of her own.
Ruthie Foster’s new album “Mileage” is scheduled to go live on Aug. 23 PHOTO: Jody Domingue
“Music, to me, was more of a witness to my life,” she said. “I could find any song and place it in my life … I think, as kids, we all know — we may not say in front of our parents, in front of our relatives, in front of friends — but we all really know when something hits home when it comes to what we want to do with our life.”
Foster found herself exploring genres and listening to Janis Ian, Mahalia Jackson and Barbra Streisand. And although she was shy, she sang in choirs and stood out vocally. Eventually, she put out her first CD in her 30s, and an illustrious blues career followed.
She has always been receptive to where music could take her, she said, drawn to the way it unwrapped her heart and mind. This openness, she said, stems in part from being surrounded by people who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement. She recalled learning from Odetta Holmes and Pete Seeger. In her songwriting, she has leaned into that flexibility.
“I’ve written songs where I didn’t know what the song’s about,” she said. What she did know was that she needed to tell that story. “Then someone comes up to the merch table maybe a year or two later,” she said, “and they are breaking down in front of me and letting me know, ‘You just sang my story, you just sang my song.’”
Foster admitted that she hasn’t always been proud of everything she’s produced. At times in her career, she has been “pushed to put out music” because the industry demanded it of her, not because she had something to say. She doesn’t do that anymore.
She’s come a long way since her days of being a timid, young, small-town girl, and “Mileage” is about the journey.
With a good cup of coffee in hand and a good conversation on a friend’s couch, many of the songs on the record came “pouring out” of her, she said. “Heartshine,” for example, a soulful track on the album introduced to the world in June as a single, came to her as she reflected on “what makes you glow.”
Foster hadn’t thought about her imminent 10th album as a milestone, perhaps because she has many plans on the horizon.
“I’ve got a whole list of things I really want to try,” she said, including a gospel album and meditation and prayer songs. In the future, she said, she also sees herself turning an eye back to the past — returning to a simpler musical format that uses just her voice and one accompanying instrument.
For now, she said, she wants to “ride this tide” as she anticipates the unveiling of “Mileage.”
