The truth according to out musician Ruthie Foster

By Matt Kailey

Ruthie Foster knows the truth, and she’s bringing her own special brand of it to Colorado for three solo shows in April.

Foster fans know that the appearance of this Grammy-nominated artist right here in our own state is reason enough to clear your calendar.

Those not yet familiar with this powerhouse performer will want to learn the truth – The Truth According to Ruthie Foster, her latest album that not only reflects the various genres that have contributed to her lifelong interest in music, but also the hard truths that this blues buff had to deal with when coming to terms with her own identity. Those truths are encapsulated in the hit song “Truth,” one of the many stellar cuts on an album packed full of honesty.

“A lot of what that song was about came about when I was having a lot of introspective time, which is usually what I try to do right before I record a CD,” says Foster.

“And it’s really about my own journey into figuring out who I was, and being OK with who I was and who I’m with – just being OK with putting that out there. … It just took me to this place where it reminded me that it’s not who you think you are on the outside, which may have more to do with other people telling you, even as a kid. You just know who you are. You know the answers to the hard questions. … I knew as a kid, I knew I wanted to be in music, but nobody was doing that in this little bitty town where I came from. And being black and not having a lot of money were just all these strikes against me, people said. But I knew – I had already seen it. All I had to do was just walk in that and become that on a daily basis. And to me, that’s what truth was.”

And a big part of Foster’s truth was coming out.

“That was interesting – coming out publicly,” she says. “Because my family has always known. This is the funny thing – I sat down with my family, I guess this was my first relationship with a woman … and I sat down with my family to tell them, and they were all just like, ‘Oh, we thought you had other news. Is there something else?’”

Foster continued, “Publicly, I’ve never hidden it from anybody. It’s just something I never walked around talking about. The better part of my adult life I’ve been with women, and I am in a relationship now. And she’s gorgeous and very pregnant with our first child right now, and we’re really excited about that. It’s just come to this full circle. Having a real relationship, knowing who I am, finding somebody who’s OK with that, and somebody who’s OK with that enough to want to raise a family with me is huge for me right now. I am in a beautiful place in so many ways. Just blessed and all of it comes from just being who I am.”

Another part of Foster’s truth is her music.

Influenced by the soul, blues and gospel singers that her parents listened to as she was growing up – including Sam Cooke, Johnny Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson, Dorothy Norwood and the Edwin Hawkins Singers – Foster started singing as a youth, and even a stint in the Navy and a string of desk jobs couldn’t dampen her desire and her distinctive style.

“I knew that I would be really happy if I got a chance to just sing and do nothing but that,” she says.

“But you go through your life and you find that there’s other things you have to do to make money, and there’s other things you have to make rent, and then you’ve got to pay for a mortgage and here comes oh, there’s a relationship, and then you’ve got to add a little cable to that, and you find out that there’s other things you have to do to keep the bills paid.

‘But I never really let go of finding a little local place to play at least every other Saturday. I never let go of that singing – performing. Because that’s how I kept my spirit free. That’s how I released having to sit in a cubicle for eight hours. That was the way that I was able to touch base with who I knew I was and was becoming.
One little thing at a time, one gig at a time, one song at a time. I never let go of that. And you wake up one day – and I really do mean wake up, in a lot of ways – you wake up, grow up, whatever you want to call it, and you realize, ‘Wow – all those little simple steps I made throughout those years have added up, and I’m actually living this dream.’”

Foster’s dream includes using her music to relate to her audience, including those who might not fully embrace her because of her sexual orientation.

“I think the music, if anything, is what draws people to what I do, and they find out (about my sexual orientation) through the music or through reading about me or just talking to me,” she says. “I talk about my partner and I talk about the fact that we’re going to have a baby and we’re scared and we’re excited, and people just connect to the emotion of it. It’s not about who – they’re just connected to the emotion, and maybe the music is a way of breaking that down.”

But now that Foster has dealt with one of her truths, both musically and with her family, friends and fans, it’s time to move on to another truth – that she is going to be a parent soon.

And that, she says, is the impetus for her next album.

“I wanted to say something,” she says about her next project. “I wanted to say something about what I’m going through now as a parent. I’m gonna be a parent here in a couple of months, and what do I want my little girl to know about me? … They say you can learn by teaching, and I’ve learned a lot, so I’m going to try to put my words and my thoughts and my lessons into music with this next CD and see where it goes and hopefully reach people in a bigger way. We’re looking at early next year (for release). I want to take my time with this because I want it to be in my own words.”

In the meantime, you can hear Foster’s own words and her own truths at her Colorado performances: March 31 at Chez Cirque in Greenwood Village; April 1 at the Aspen Songwriters Festival in Aspen; and April 2 at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, where she will appear with Colorado favorite Liz Barnez.

So mark your calendars and get ready for the truth!