Ruthie Foster to Play The Suffolk in Riverhead August 22

When you hear Ruthie Foster open her mouth, it’s hard to believe the little girl who started out playing guitar in church in Texas was more than content “…to be the person who backed up incredible singers because I was really, really shy.” But 10 studio albums in, Foster has developed a rich voice that lives at the crossroads of gospel, blues, soul and country that’s garnered her six Grammy nominations with the most recent being a win for Best Contemporary Blues Album by way of 2024’s Mileage. For the Lone Star native who grew up taping sermons and regularly attending services in the small town of Gause, she’s just as surprised to see where she wound up.

“I thought I wanted to be part of a group that could really move people,” she recalled. “I wanted to be support, because I didn’t want to be up front. Little did I know that I had a knack for being up front because I had studied so many incredible players and singers in the church. Great guitar players — rhythm guitar players and incredible soloists, including my mother putting on Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, young Aretha [Franklin] and Dorothy Norwood, who was a great gospel songwriter. All of these songwriters who wrote gospel. I was introduced to all of that first.”

While sacred sounds lit the fuse, Foster was quick to embrace secular music once she focused her efforts studying music and audio engineering at Waco’s McLennan Community College. It was here where she transitioned from playing in Black and White Churches to widening her musical palette while getting a real-time education in the blues.

For her current album Mileage, Foster worked with producer Tyler Bryant, who also enlisted wife Rebecca Lovell (one half of duo Larkin Poe) to help with the creative heavy lifting. That collaboration came out of pure happenstance that eventually found Foster shuttling between the duo’s Tennessee home and Texas.

“Mileage came about one song at a time,” Foster said. “I was introduced to Tyler Bryant during the lockdown. Everyone is on YouTube and that’s where I saw him and loved his segment on Andrews Masters, his YouTube channel. Fast forward and it’s time to do another project. My management mentioned Rebecca, from Larkin Poe, who is also part of my management, her husband was this guy named Tyler I asked if he wouldn’t happen to be Tyler Bryant and that’s what brought us together.”

She added, “I started taking trips up to Nashville, sat on their couch, drank coffee and talked about my life. They are wonderful listeners. Me and Rebecca sat across from each other just coming up with lyrics for Mileage for that particular song while Tyler walked around with an acoustic guitar, coming up with chords. And then we just kind of did that off and on for about nine or 10 months. Maybe one or two songs per visit.”

One of the largest pivots for Foster in releasing Mileage is the fact that she’s leaving her longtime label Blue Corn Music for storied imprint Sun Records. And while it’s a bittersweet move, she’s left Blue Corn on good terms while landing in a situation whose history dates back to a seminal time in music history.

“I’m really good friends with Denby Auble, who is the president of Blue Corn,” she explained. “He’s my family and it was so important for me to get his okay to move in this direction. That was huge for me to actually be a part of this particular label. First of all, I didn’t even know they were even still out there even looking for artists because they don’t have to. That was a huge exciting part for me and a great opportunity to be part of this label. And as a Black woman, this was huge for me to actually represent another side of this particular record label that needs to come out. Linda Martell’s name has come up more. It’s great to see that.”

With a brand-new batch of songs under her belt and a solid canon to draw from, being on the road is a constant state of being for Foster. This current string of dates will find her keeping fans guessing.

“I’m mixing it up on this go-round,” she said. “I will be anywhere from solo to quartet, so they can expect anything from just having ‘An Evening With…’ to me and my fellas with me. A lot of material from the new album, obviously, but at least back to The Phenomenal album, so we’ll try to put it all in there and stuff it.”

Ruthie Foster will be appearing on August 22 at The Suffolk, 118 E. Main Street, Riverhead. For more information, visit suffolktheater.com or call 631-727-4343.