The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Ruthie Foster came into the music world as a folk singer. Armed with an acoustic guitar, she used simple songwriting to hone her craft, learning how to tour and entertain an audience.

Then she let the soul out. Her fifth record, “The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster,” is full of the gospel force Foster suggested in previous recordings but never really let loose. It’s a gospel — and R&B-soaked revelation, and Foster’s use of the word “phenomenal” isn’t in any way an overstatement — no matter how many times she’s had to talk about the title since the album came out in February 2007.

Today, Foster plays the Strings Music Festival Different Tempo Series with her band, and she invites everyone in Steamboat Springs to “come on out and be ready to have hallelujah time.”

She talked with 4 Points about getting back to the genre she’s always loved, working with superlatives in the soul world and making music that makes you feel good.

4 POINTS: Have you gotten tired of people asking about the title of your last album yet?

RUTHIE FOSTER: It gets asked a lot, and I kind of set myself up for that.

It’s kind of a play on the old style of recording, where the way that you introduced an artist to the public was that you came up with these words — “The Electrifying Aretha Franklin,” “The Amazing Sam Cooke.” And that was the same idea that we were going for. …

It’s closer to soul. It’s closer to just old soul. Me and my producer listened to a lot of Bill Withers and Roberta Flack … and a lot of soul music before even going into the studio to record it.

I also grew up with soul music — a lot of gospel and blues and soul music. Growing up in the middle of Texas, it’s pretty much what we did. …

That’s kind of what got me into playing the guitar and playing a little bit of the blues. One of the things that separated me from other folk singers early in my career is that I sang Sam Cooke tunes with an acoustic guitar.

4 POINTS: What do you like about soul music?

RF: The music makes you feel good. It comes from the spirit, and so the music is not very far removed from inspirational music that’s close to gospel, even. So it’s just normal for me to make that expansion over into soul. ... It moves you from the spirit.

4 POINTS: You mentioned putting words like “amazing” or “phenomenal” in front of an introduction. Even though it was your fifth album, did you feel that “The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster” was an introduction to this more soulful sound?

RF: I looked at it as an expansion of what I had done before. ... Those (previous recordings) were closer to Americana and folk, with a little bit of gospel and acoustic blues. And this was expanded to having a full rhythm section and electrifying that sound, and putting it in front of a bigger crowd at bigger festivals. …

I grew up listening to so much, so many different genres. And this is the just the beginning of what I want to do with my music.