A little Ruthie Foster for your Saturday morning...

Pollstar Magazine cover story
A young Ruthie Foster was singing softly into her portable tape recorder when her mother walked by her bedroom door, heard the hushed voice and burst in with one hand on her hip and a dishrag in the other. “She came in, sat down on the bed and said, ‘I hear you in here trying to sing. Just open your mouth!’” Foster told Pollstar. “She was really the first person that just made me feel good about that. She said, ‘You are a beautiful creature and you have a beautiful voice.’ She was the first person who really got on me about that.” Foster grew up in a family immersed in gospel and blues. She also grew up with a nearly debilitating shyness that manifested itself as a stutter. “It was horrendous for me to stand up in front of people and even think about opening up my mouth,” she said. “I was so shy I would go into this stutter thing sometimes as a kid, so it was embarrassing for me on top of that. But through music, I found my way of being open and making people feel good.” She’s not afraid to sing for an audience anymore. Foster recently capped a set at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival by winning the Blues Foundation award May 6 for best contemporary female blues artist. Earlier this year, she was up for a Grammy Award nomination for best contemporary blues album for her sixth release, The Truth According to Ruthie Foster. - (complete article)