Ruthie Foster,
The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster

Label: Blue Corn Music
Year: 2007

(5 out of 5)

Ruthie Foster fans, brace yourselves. The longtime Austin fixture is reinventing herself with The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster. Needing a creative spark, Foster gave in to the urgings of producer Malcolm "Papa Mali" Welbourne, set aside her acoustic guitar in favor of a Wurlitzer, and recorded a full-blown blues/soul revival album. While her style has long blended blues and soul, any edge generally has been softened by a folk sensibility. But here there's no relief from the groove. On tracks like "'Cuz I'm Here," "Mama Said," and the Maya Angelou poem turned song "Phenomenal Woman," Foster delivers such a gritty vocal tension and sustained passion that one can't help but compare her to Aretha Franklin. And the heartbreaking "I Don't Know What to Do with My Heart" is a signature song in the making, sure to pop up in playlists of the lovelorn for years to come. The results of Foster's metamorphosis are nothing short of, well, phenomenal. We're just six weeks into 2007, but it's never too early to crown a frontrunner for the year's best album.

Listen: "'Cuz I'm Here," "Harder than the Fall," "Mama Said," "I Don't Know What to Do with My Heart"

Buy: Lone Star Music, Amazon

February 13, 2007