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Ruthie Foster Steps Into The Spotlight

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By CURTIS ROSS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 10, 2008

Just out of music school, Ruthie Foster decided she needed a change. So she joined the Navy.

But music had a way of finding her regardless of where she went.

"I enlisted to take a break from music," Foster says by telephone from her home in Austin, Texas.

"I spent about a year working with radar, and then decided that was a lot like work," Foster says with a laugh.

Foster wound up singing with Pride, the U.S. Navy pop group.

"We were based in Charleston, S.C., and toured in the Southeast. We did a couple of Mardi Gras. It was great," Foster says. "I got to socialize in a totally different circle than music school and I needed that."

Change has been good for Foster. Last year's "The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster" album found her finding a new voice as well as a new audience.

Rather than rely on the acoustic guitar-centered contemporary folk of her previous albums, producer Malcolm "Papa Mali" Welbourne brought in a grooving rhythm section and an array of vintage keyboards - a Wurlitzer electric piano and Hammond B-3 organ among them - to coax a hotter, more electric soul sound from Foster.

Welbourne "had a really wonderful way of getting me to open up more," Foster says. "We wanted to get to that real vintage sound with the vocals up front.

"It takes me back to when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s, when soul music was everywhere," Foster says. "I think we managed to come real close to that sound."

The title of the album wasn't meant as hubris, Foster insists. It was Welbourne's idea to announce Foster's new sound to the world.

The title also made reference to a song from the album, "Phenomenal Woman," the lyrics of which are taken from a poem by Maya Angelou.

Foster admits she "cringed a little bit" when Welbourne suggested the title. "First I had to learn to spell phenomenal right!

"That was definitely my name out front, and I had to live up to it," Foster says.

But, she continues, the title also "says a lot about where I'm at right now. I'm stepping into my own light."

Foster made a few stops on the journey to "Phenomenal." After her stint in the Navy, Foster scored a contract with Atlantic Records in the early '90s. It didn't result in an album but gave Foster time to learn her craft.

Foster says she "had no idea" what she wanted to do musically while under contract to Atlantic. "I was just glad to be handed that opportunity. I leapt at it. I spent the time learning ... and practicing my music. It really benefited me in a lot of ways."

She returned to hometown Austin, Texas, in the mid-'90s, gaining a reputation on the folk festival circuit and releasing four albums of soul- and blues-influenced folk.

Foster will be on the road for most of the first half of 2008 - "I just took a look at my schedule. I better get my taxes done early!" she says with a laugh.

After that she'll begin working on her next album, which, for now, is likely to follow a musical vein similar to "Phenomenal."

"I think I have a little bit more of that left in me," Foster says.

ON TOUR

Ruthie Foster

WITH: Lauren Dragon

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Skipper's Smokehouse, 910 Skipper Road, Tampa; (813) 971-0666

COST: $17 advance, $20 day of show

Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com.

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