Ruthie Foster - The Truth According To Ruthie Foster (2009)

With a naturally expressive voice that has drawn comparisons to greats like
Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald, Texas-based singer and songwriter
Ruthie Foster has a wide palette of American song forms - gospel and blues
to jazz, folk, and soul - and her live performances are powerfully
transfiguring. Foster grew up in Gause, Texas, a small town in the Brazos
Valley southeast of Dallas, and even as a child she was fascinated by
music; she listened to everything she could, hearing and absorbing not just
gospel and blues, but also the country and pop songs she heard on the
radio.

By the age of 14 she was a soloist in a local choir and was certain that
her future would revolve around music. When she moved to Waco to attend
community college, her studies were concentrated around music and audio
engineering. She also began fronting a blues band, learning how to command
a stage in the rough bars of Texas. Hoping to travel and gain a wider world
perspective, Foster joined the Navy, but her obvious musical talents soon
had her singing with Pride, a Navy band that played pop and funk hits at
recruitment drives in the southeastern US.

Foster has plenty of soul in her voice and the funky music she enjoys,
enough to spread around to many listeners of populist contemporary blues
and beyond. Blessed with solid chops and a style to match, Foster brings
down the house on this set of tunes that crosses over to dance music
through acoustic folk-pop at times, and most certainly rock & roll. With
electric guitarist Robben Ford, keyboardist Jim Dickinson in one of his
last studio efforts before passing away, and a horn section steeped in
Memphis R&B, Foster has a very potent band to support and lift her up.

Two Eric Bibb songs "Love in the Middle" and "Thanks for the Joy" have
Foster offering opposite energy patterns in a slow love song or rocker
mode, respectively. Patty Griffin's "When It Don't Come Easy" is a folk-pop
amalgam via Dickinson's old-school Wurlitzer organ. Except for the
reggae-infused "I Really Love You," the rest of the material is good-time,
upbeat music that allows Foster and her audience many energized moments.
Her tune "Truth" is easily the hit of the set, a groove biscuit anthem
where she offers premises such as that real-deal honesty is something you
can't find in most places, but in fact is always right where you are.

This is a fully realized project, and recognized as such by a Grammy
nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album in 2009.