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A MESSAGE FROM LAWRENCE LEBO

I have some big news to share with you!

At the time of my writing this my husband/bassist Denny Croy and
I are in the middle of moving our home and business from our birth
state of California to the state of Ohio, which is 2,378 miles (3,827
kilometers) away. It’s a move across the nation to where is
referred to as the mid-west, or as the rust belt! We will be
sharing the state with other such current blues notables as
Teeny Tucker and Ben Levin.
Selling our home in California and flying back and forth to Ohio
to purchase our new home has been all consuming of late. As such, I
have not been able to interview a new artists for you this month. So I’ve looked
through all the many wonderful interviews I’ve had the pleasure to do in the past and
have chosen one to hold my place until we are settled in Ohio, and I can resume writing new
interviews.

Ruthie Foster has a new album out titled Healing Time. Its gospel
influenced Americana/Roots Pop material clearly aimed for bigger
markets. Good for Ruthie! She’s so talented she deserves as large
an audience as is available to her.

I hope you will enjoy revisiting my 2020 interview with Ruthie
Foster.

~ Lawrence

A CONVERSATION WITH RUTHIE
FOSTER

By Lawrence Lebo

Wherever Ruthie Foster goes, so does
Gospel! Born in Gause, Texas (US),
Ruthie was raised in a family of gospel
singers. As such, she became a soloist in
her church choir at age 14. From her first
self-released album in 1997, right through to
her current release, “Ruthie Foster Big Band
Live At The Paramount”, gospel comes through
as her signature style. The genre is definitely
where Ruthie is most comfortable.

Ms. Foster has had a long and varied career which has included time serving in the United States
Navy! She’s received 3 Grammy Award nominations and 9 Blues Music Awards. She’s traversed
her musical journey exploring the Blues, Soul and Gospel. On January 26, 2020, Ruthie stepped
onto the 105-year-old stage of Austin, Texas’s grand-dame Paramount Theatre with literally a
big band, consisting of a guitarist, keyboardist, bassist, drummer, 10 horn players, 3 backing
vocalists and one conductor! The recorded live performance was released on May 15, 2020 as
“Ruthie Foster Big Band Live At The Paramount”, but it’s not at all what you might expect it to
be.

I asked Ruthie to tell me a bit about her career and her latest release. This is what she told me: