Josephine Foster | |
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Background information | |
Born |
Colorado, United States |
April 19, 1974
Genres | Folk, art song, psychedelic rock |
Occupation(s) | 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 |
Josephine Foster (born April 19, 1974) 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.
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.