FOSTER, JOSEPHINE ~ GRAPHIC AS A STAR ~ lp (fire, uk)
this is the first record from u.s. minstrel-folk chanteuse josephine foster on fire records. graphic as a star is based upon the poems of the 19th-century american poet emily dickinson. josephine lays stair-steppy melodies beneath a collection of dickinson gems and sings them with a burnished soulfulness like the purple sunsets so often described in the poems. massachusetts mountains, pearled spider-webs and folk hero william tell, are all present in this unforgettable meeting of dickinson’s poesy and foster’s music, making a natural and inevitable whole. ms. foster is a colorado-born artist whose songwriting draws from far corners of the musical spectrum to form a truly singular body of work. her voice is sometimes compared to singers as disparate as grace slick, shirley collins or tiny tim, and it’s certainly difficult to pigeonhole her varied music. she says her craft is strongly shaped by “tin pan alley on my maternal side, rock and roll on the paternal side, western folk music by birth, art-song and classical music via my adolescent passions.” a personal introduction to graphic as a star from josephine herself: “as to the source of these interludes, i wrote them this past winter while living in this remote, half-abandoned spanish mountain village, a deadly quiet place with occasional interruptions of goats’ bells, donkey brays, and the church bell announcing the passing of another old neighbor every day or so. i had just a few books with me, and one was the poetry of emily dickinson. her poems proved such good company, that in a few short weeks appeared this ‘song cycle.’ whether for the irony of distance and homesickness being 3 years away, or through inevitable kinship with this long-dead lady, these songs seem to veer more towards america than ever before. back in music school, i heard a few musical settings of dickinson made by classical composers, but it’s my hope to unite some of her poems into more intimate and intuitive musical settings, being so lyrical and transparent as they are.
FOSTER, JOSEPHINE ~ GRAPHIC AS A STAR ~ lp (fire, uk)
FOSTER, JOSEPHINE ~ GRAPHIC AS A STAR ~ lp (fire, uk)
this is the first record from u.s. minstrel-folk chanteuse josephine foster on fire records. graphic as a star is based upon the poems of the 19th-century american poet emily dickinson. josephine lays stair-steppy melodies beneath a collection of dickinson gems and sings them with a burnished soulfulness like the purple sunsets so often described in the poems. massachusetts mountains, pearled spider-webs and folk hero william tell, are all present in this unforgettable meeting of dickinson’s poesy and foster’s music, making a natural and inevitable whole. ms. foster is a colorado-born artist whose songwriting draws from far corners of the musical spectrum to form a truly singular body of work. her voice is sometimes compared to singers as disparate as grace slick, shirley collins or tiny tim, and it’s certainly difficult to pigeonhole her varied music. she says her craft is strongly shaped by “tin pan alley on my maternal side, rock and roll on the paternal side, western folk music by birth, art-song and classical music via my adolescent passions.” a personal introduction to graphic as a star from josephine herself: “as to the source of these interludes, i wrote them this past winter while living in this remote, half-abandoned spanish mountain village, a deadly quiet place with occasional interruptions of goats’ bells, donkey brays, and the church bell announcing the passing of another old neighbor every day or so. i had just a few books with me, and one was the poetry of emily dickinson. her poems proved such good company, that in a few short weeks appeared this ‘song cycle.’ whether for the irony of distance and homesickness being 3 years away, or through inevitable kinship with this long-dead lady, these songs seem to veer more towards america than ever before. back in music school, i heard a few musical settings of dickinson made by classical composers, but it’s my hope to unite some of her poems into more intimate and intuitive musical settings, being so lyrical and transparent as they are.