Raised in Gause, Texas, a small town 180 miles southeast of Dallas, Ruthie Foster grew up surrounded by the rich, soulful sounds of gospel and blues. Even as a young girl, she was taking in a wide variety of music, whether through the hymns her mother taught her, the Beatles songs she analyzed in a book given by her guitar teacher, the 45s her truck-driving uncle would drop off during visits, ... Read more in Amazon's Ruthie Foster Store
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This is way extra cool music for our tortured souls & troubled minds. R.F. shines through these brilliant recordings of blues-based ballads with a heavy portion of gospel and a lil' touch of Mississippi mud. Relaxed-yet catchy melodies blend with more traditionally crafted blues, all served with passion, faith and respect. Foster shouts, wispers, screams, prays with the authority of very few. Some x-ellent musicians helped out (Gary Primich, Cyd Cassone, Lloyd Maines-among others). I'm happy to see this independent release in a large web store. Worths every penny.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:4.9 out of 5 stars 30 reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 starsRunaway Soul28 Sep 2003
By Kevin L. Nenstiel - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's a shame Ruthie Foster isn't a big name in radio. With her folk-gospel-blues sound and her strong writing and playing, she seems like a natural. But the industry favors slick, bland, glossy acts, and Ruthie Foster is none of those things. She's the real deal.
An interior photo shows Foster and her musical partner, Cyd Cassone, sitting outside a rural grocery store just playing away like Willy and the Poor Boys. It's not hard to imagine most of these songs coming about that way. The raw, edgy passion of songs like Ocean of Tears and Woke Up This Morning just lend themselves right to that style. Even more polished songs, like Give You My Love and the Terri Hendrix cover Hole in My Pocket, have a deeply-felt edge to them.
I see one flub in this album. The song Home, a paean to small-town life, seems uninspired, and is sung in a breathy style that was popular on the radio a few years ago despite being horrible. It seems meant to ensure there's one radio-friendly track on the disc. That feels pretty disingenuous, and I could have done without it on this otherwise sterling CD.
Foster is a dynamic performer who makes the traditions her own. This is her third album and her first major-label release, and I suspect we have only more and better to come from her. And in my view it can't come too soon.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 starsThe woman with the voice17 Dec 2005
By Lana - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
I saw Ruthie at the Great Waters Folk festival in Wolfboro NH. She was amazing! After her performance one night I went to buy some CDs. Ruthie's were flying off the table. Despite stacks of them, they were gone in minutes. While looking at others to buy I kept hearing people coming up to the table making the same request, "I want the woman with the voice." Even though there were many much more famous singers there that night, eveyone knew exactly who these customers were looking for. "Sorry, we're sold out and waiting for Fed Ex to bring more. The woman behind the counter told me they sold 1000 of her cd's in one day!
If you grew up in a small country town, or ever wished you did, "Home" will warm and break you heart at the same time.
Do I love every song on this album? No. Doesn't matter. I love Ruthie. She is the real thing. As great as her gift sounds on a recording, it inevitably pales in comparison to her live performances where she shakes the rafters with the clearest, most perfectly on cue singing you ever heard. And when she finishes, after sending chills up and down your spine and leaving you weak from astonishment, she bursts into laughter. Ruthie is pure Joy.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 starsAn instant and grateful fan22 Nov 2002
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
After reading an article about Ruthie in a local weekly, I made sure to get seats early at her performance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in September of 02. I'm certainly glad I did...not only were we front and center at an amazing show, but the seats plus all the surrounding area filled up as soon as she hit the mic! Who wouldn't be drawn to a songstress like this? At once Ruthie seems both a larger-than-life performer and an accessible, small-town girl-next-door...well, okay: an I-knew-her-when girl-next-door. Her huge, genuine smile is impossible not to return. She and Cyd Cassone, her percussionist, have an easy rapport that flows from song to song, along with their harmonies.
I am a fan of music that moves me, without regard to genre. Ruthie's music is folksy and bluesy with a dash of old-time country, all wrapped up in a gospel-ly rhythm that will leave you powerless to stop your feet from tappin', your hands from clappin', and your mouth from singin' along. Oh, and by the way, I think her voice outpowers Aretha's, even in her glory days...and I'm a huge fan of the Queen! What I wouldn't give to see the two of THEM perform together! Forget Whitney, Mariah, and the other "divas..." Get these two women together, and the house will come unDONE!
Buy this CD if you like Texas music...gospel-tinged inflections...emotionally searching songs...music to inevitably lift you up...great harmonies...sparse production...the list goes on.
Better yet, just buy this CD, period!! And catch her live show--you won't be disappointed!
