Runaway Soul

 (29 customer reviews)

It's a shame Ruthie Foster isn't a big name in radio. With her folk-gospel-blues sound and her strong writing and playing, she seems like a natural. But the industry favors slick, bland, glossy acts, and Ruthie Foster is none of those things. She's the real deal.An interior photo shows Foster and her musical partner, Cyd Cassone, sitting outside a rural grocery store just playing away like Willy and the Poor Boys. It's not hard to imagine most of these songs coming about that way. The raw, edgy passion of songs like Ocean of Tears and Woke Up This Morning just lend themselves right to that style. Even more polished songs, like Give You My Love and the Terri Hendrix cover Hole in My Pocket, have a deeply-felt edge to them.I see one flub in this album. The song Home, a paean to small-town life, seems uninspired, and is sung in a breathy style that was popular on the radio a few years ago despite being horrible. It seems meant to ensure there's one radio-friendly track on...Read more

I saw Ruthie at the Great Waters Folk festival in Wolfboro NH. She was amazing! After her performance one night I went to buy some CDs. Ruthie's were flying off the table. Despite stacks of them, they were gone in minutes. While looking at others to buy I kept hearing people coming up to the table making the same request, "I want the woman with the voice." Even though there were many much more famous singers there that night, eveyone knew exactly who these customers were looking for. "Sorry, we're sold out and waiting for Fed Ex to bring more. The woman behind the counter told me they sold 1000 of her cd's in one day!

If you grew up in a small country town, or ever wished you did, "Home" will warm and break you heart at the same time.

Do I love every song on this album? No. Doesn't matter. I love Ruthie. She is the real thing. As great as her gift sounds on a recording, it inevitably pales in comparison to her live performances where she shakes the...Read more

After reading an article about Ruthie in a local weekly, I made sure to get seats early at her performance at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in September of 02. I'm certainly glad I did...not only were we front and center at an amazing show, but the seats plus all the surrounding area filled up as soon as she hit the mic! Who wouldn't be drawn to a songstress like this? At once Ruthie seems both a larger-than-life performer and an accessible, small-town girl-next-door...well, okay: an I-knew-her-when girl-next-door. Her huge, genuine smile is impossible not to return. She and Cyd Cassone, her percussionist, have an easy rapport that flows from song to song, along with their harmonies.I am a fan of music that moves me, without regard to genre. Ruthie's music is folksy and bluesy with a dash of old-time country, all wrapped up in a gospel-ly rhythm that will leave you powerless to stop your feet from tappin', your hands from clappin', and your mouth from singin' along...Read more