{"id":5007,"date":"2012-02-29T00:49:18","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T07:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=5007"},"modified":"2012-02-29T00:55:20","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T07:55:20","slug":"ruthie-foster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/02\/ruthie-foster\/","title":{"rendered":"RUTHIE FOSTER"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"RUTHIE FOSTER\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Making the time to pour her soul into some of her favorite songs\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Ruthie Foster is running a little late. \u201cPardon my tardiness,\u201d she says. \u201cI was getting a head start on dinner and tending to my six-month-old all at the same time. I keep it challenging when I\u2019m at home.\u201d Multitasking is but one of her talents, although it does have its limits\u2014a desire to help raise her daughter, Maya, who she and her partner, Katie, adopted last May, while continuing to tour relentlessly didn\u2019t leave her much time for songwriting.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why her new album, Let It Burn<\/em>, consists mainly of classic covers, ranging from standards like \u201cYou Don\u2019t Miss Your Water\u201d (sung with its composer, soul great William Bell) to contemporary classics such as \u201cLong Time Gone\u201d by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. \u201cThe choices originated with a lot of lists of songs going back and forth between me and my producer, John Chelew,\u201d she explains. \u201cPlus I had been listening to Norah Jones and Cassandra Wilson, and this was a definite attempt to inject that sultriness they bring to their music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Genre was no consideration in the song selections\u2014Foster has never felt the need to stick within those parameters. \u201cThat\u2019s no fun,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s what keeps\u00a0it interesting for me. I\u2019m a music lover. I have so many different genres that I listen to, especially with my partner being 14 years younger than I am. My band members all listen to different things, so that influences me. We\u2019re constantly trying to mix it up. So I dig up new things when I can, hopefully without losing my core audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

A native Texan who currently resides near Austin, Foster moved to Manhattan in the early \u201990s to pursue musical ambitions first nurtured as a soloist in her church\u00a0choir; she later joined a serviceman\u2019s band while in the Navy. A major label courted her, sensing her mainstream potential, but her need to return home to care for her ailing mother and refusal to be typecast as a soul singer prompted her to decline the offer. \u201cThey knew I had to do what I had to do,\u201d says Foster, 47. \u201cI learned a lot, however. I learned about songwriting, and that a label will nudge you in whatever direction it sees fit.\u201d Eight albums on, Foster now simply follows her instincts. \u201cI try not to put too much thought into what I record,\u201d she says. \u201cI just want to reach as many\u00a0people as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUTHIE FOSTER\u00a0 Making the time to pour her soul into some of her favorite songs\u00a0 Ruthie Foster is running a little late. \u201cPardon my tardiness,\u201d she says. \u201cI was getting a head start on dinner and tending to my six-month-old all at the same time. I keep it challenging when I\u2019m at home.\u201d Multitasking is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2864,3141,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5023,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5007\/revisions\/5023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}