Customer Reviews
Blues + Soul = Phenomenal 
2008-04-09
I stopped listening to any kind of radio a few years ago, so my exposure to new artists (to me) is via the internet.
I was on YouTube watching clips of Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Up Above My Head) and saw a clip of Ruthie Foster doing a cover, needless to say I was intrigued and sought out her music and bought this release.
What a treat. Her blues/soul sensibilities are refreshing. I'll be be exploring the rest of her catalog,which I'm sure I'll enjoy.
Sunday best 
2007-11-12
a wonderful collection of songs. The arrangements and recordings are crisp beautiful! I look forward to buying another Ruthie Foster CD and hopefully catching her in concert!
Better than I'd Hoped 2007-11-03
I ordered this CD based on a review I read in The Epoch Times and I was delighted to find it was even better than I had hoped. Ruthie's depth of feeling, her wise understanding of the world she lives in, and her voice itself are so moving that I had to take this CD everywhere with me and let all my friends hear it.
The Title Doesn't Lie 2007-10-30
Five long years after Foster arrived with "Runaway Soul," a fine blues/soul disc that netted an appearance on Austin City Limits, she returns with an homage to Sixties soul and blues. On the first two offerings, ""Cuz I'm Here" and "Heal Yourself" she courts comparisons to Aretha at her best, a soulful Gospel shouter. Then she slows it down with a stunning cover of Lucinda Williams' "Fruits of My Labor," and a testifying, nearly acapella cover of Son House's "People Grinnin' In Your Face."
Foster's voice is powerful and natural, unprocessed, a rarity. While not all the cuts match the power of the opening quad, the in a real way rarely heard. While the production isn't inspired, Foster and producer Malcolm Wellbourne were smart enough to have her mostly ditch her acoustic guitar for the warmth of a Wurlitzer piano. While the rest of the album doesn't always match the heights of the opening quad, it's an early favorite for a best of 2007.
Excellent Soulful Music 2007-08-11
Ruthie Foster truly is phenomenal. I always wonder where people like her have been hiding. As on any CD there are songs I like better than others but overall this is a stellar CD. This woman can sing and you can feel the soul in her music.
Love It! 2007-06-25
Ruthie Foster's the newest voice in old-school soul. Her fifth album is a remarkable flashback to the genre's '60s and '70s heyday, framing her warm butter-and-cayenne-pepper singing with organ, electric piano, shimmering guitar textures, and strong backbeats. That sound, along with her strength as a song interpreter--rippling with beauty on Lucinda Williams's "Fruits of My Labor," stunningly emotional on Son House's cautionary Delta spiritual "People Grinnin' in Your Face"--and her fine-tuned social politics, makes Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, and Nina Simone reasonable artistic references. For the 42-year-old Texan, this historic approach is new. Until now she's been an obscure acoustic-guitar-wielding singer-songwriter. And, indeed, the evocative lyricism of her own tunes "Harder Than the Fall," "Heal Yourself," and "Beaver Creek Blues" is clearly the work of an experienced craftsperson. But the performances on this elegant album, made under the tutelage of imaginative and empathetic Austin-based producer Malcolm Welbourne, live up to its boastful title, and seem destined to bring Foster the larger audience she deserves.
--Ted Drozdowski
Very real 2007-06-08
There's nothing pretentious about this CD. I would like to be in the room with these musicians while they're doing the music to experience it first hand.
Phenomenal! 2007-06-06
I heard Ruthie Foster in an interview on NPR (National Public Radio), on "Studio 360". NPR has done this to me before; hooked me on a sound I'd never experienced previous. I have this CD in my cubicle at work and it is all I can do not to dance or sing out loud. I am going to have to get a copy for the car and one for the house I think. This was my first Foster experience and it is as profound as Bob Marley singing "No Woman, No Cry". And Maya Angelou's poem "Phenomenal Woman" set to song by Foster is...I don't have the words.
The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster 
2007-05-30
Disappointing. Only cared for about 2 songs, which were the "preview" songs that prompted me to purchase the cd.
Ruthie Foster 
2007-05-29
I have enjoyed most of the cuts on this cd, especially Phenomenal Woman. I would like to hear more material, however. I will listen to the other two cd's that you have listed. I like her voice and her phrasing is very good. It just didn't give me goose bumps. That's my usual measure.
