Josephine Foster
Josephine Foster | |
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Background information | |
Born | Colorado, United States |
Genres | Folk, art song, psychedelic rock |
Occupations | Singer, songwriter, musician, music producer |
Instruments | Guitar, harp, ukulele, piano |
Years active | 2000-present |
Labels | Fire Records, Windbell, Bo' Weavil Recordings, Locust Music, |
Associated acts | The Victor Herrero Band, Mendrugo, The Children´s Hour, Born Heller, The Supposed |
Website | www.josephinefoster.info |
Josephine Foster is an American singer-songwriter and musician from Colorado, United States. As an adolescent she worked as a funeral and wedding singer, and aspired to become an opera singer. After her studies she began to record demos of her own songs, resulting in the early recordings There Are Eyes Above (2000), an album of ukulele accompanied songs strongly influenced by Tin Pan Alley, and an album of children's songs, Little Life (2001).
For several years she worked as a singing teacher in Chicago, recording and performing with a variety of musical acts on the side including Born Heller, a project with free jazz-bassist Jason Ajemian, and The Children's Hour, a pop band formed with songwriter Andrew Bar. In 2004, joined by her occasional backing band The Supposed (Brian Goodman on guitar and Rusty Peterson on drums), she released an album of psychedelic rock called All the Leaves Are Gone which has drawn comparison to Patti Smith and Jefferson Airplane.[1]
The songs on her first solo studio album Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You (2005, Locust Music) evoke American folk and blues forms of the early 20th century. A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, released in 2006, features unorthodox interpretations of 19th century German Lieder. This Coming Gladness, was released in 2008 and featured the contributions of Victor Herrero on electric guitar and percussion by Alex Neilson. In early 2009 she released an album of 27 Emily Dickinson song settings entitled Graphic as a Star with the British independent record label, Fire Records. Thereafter began her work in rural Spain, with her husband Victor Herrero collecting and arranging collections of folk songs, resulting in the recordings Anda Jaleo (a resetting of Garcia Lorca´s piano/voice transcriptions of Spanish songs), and Perlas (a selection of Spanish songs made by Foster herself) respectively.
In 2012, she returned to Colorado to record a solo album Blood Rushing which took inspiration from local themes from her childhood such as the western geography, native rhythms, and imagined mythology. The album was recorded in a Boulder yoga studio by the Andrija Tokic. It featured the ensemble of Victor Herrero on classical and electric guitars, Paz Lenchantin on bass, Heather Trost on violin, and Ben Trimble on pueblo skin drums.
Foster released a new full-length album, I'm A Dreamer on November 12, 2013.
Discography
- 2000: There Are Eyes Above
- 2001: Little Life
- 2003: SOS JFK (with The Children's Hour)
- 2004: All the Leaves Are Gone (Josephine Foster and the Supposed)
- 2004: Born Heller (with Jason Ajemian)
- 2005: Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You
- 2006: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
- 2008: This Coming Gladness
- 2009: Graphic as a Star
- 2010: Anda Jaleo (with The Victor Herrero Band)
- 2012: Perlas (with The Victor Herrero Band)
- 2012: Blood Rushing
- 2013: I'm A Dreamer[2]
References
- ↑
- ↑ Josephine Foster. "Josephine Foster | Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved 2013-12-05.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Josephine Foster. |
- Official website
- National Public Radio interview
- Harmonic Rooms feature
- Dusted magazine review
- article in The Stranger
- Tiny Mix Tapes review of This Coming Gladness
- Blood Rushing review from La Blogothèque (in French)
- Folk Radio UK review of Blood Rushing
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