Radney Foster

All Music Guide:

Radney Foster started his career as a songwriter, then found commercial success and critical acclaim as part of the duo Foster & Lloyd, and finally embarked on a solo career in 1991 that centered on his literate approach to country songwriting. Foster was born in Del Rio, TX, and took up the guitar at age 12. He began performing small-club gigs while attending the University of the South, a liberal arts college in Sewanee, TN, and took leave from school to try his luck in Nashville. In 1985, he signed with the MTM publishing firm as a staff songwriter, and soon struck up a partnership with Bill Lloyd, who joined the company two months later. Their "Since I Found You" became a Top Ten hit for the Sweethearts of the Rodeo, and on the strength of their demo tape RCA signed them as recording artists. Foster & Lloyd recorded three albums from 1987-1990, and landed a series of Top Ten singles in addition to complimentary reviews.

When their third album tanked, the duo amicably disbanded and Foster pursued a solo career. His debut, Del Rio, Texas, 1959, appeared in 1992 and proved a commercial as well as critical success; four of its singles hit the Top 40, and of those, "Just Call Me Lonesome" made the Top Ten, while "Nobody Wins" fell one spot short of the top of the country charts. However, the 1995 follow-up, Labor of Love, wasn't quite as popular with audiences as it was with critics. Foster revamped his approach on his third solo effort, 1999's See What You Want to See, which was more influenced by pop and rock. He subsequently parted ways with his label, Arista, and signed with the smaller Dualtone, which issued the live album Are You Ready for the Big Show?, a more traditional country outing, in 2001. The studio follow-up, 2002's Another Way to Go, found Foster exploring classic-style R&B in addition to country. In 2004 he released the acoustic album And Then There's Me (The Back Porch Sessions), only available online, but 2006 saw another Dualtone record, This World We Live In.

Wikipedia:

Radney Foster (born July 20, 1959, Del Rio, Texas, United States) is an American Texas country artist. Initially a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, Foster made his debut in 1986 alongside Bill Lloyd in the duo Foster & Lloyd. Between then and 1990, the duo recorded three studio albums for RCA Records and charted nine singles on the country charts.

Foster began his solo career in 1992 when he signed to Arista Records, Although his first release for the label (1992's Del Rio, TX 1959) produced four consecutive Top 40 hits, Foster saw his commercial success waning with the release of his second and third albums (1995's Labor of Love and 1999's See What You Want to See, respectively), and by 1999 he had exited Arista's roster. He then signed to the independent Dualtone Records label, for which he has recorded three more albums to date: 2001's Are You Ready for the Big Show?, 2002's Another Way to Go and 2006's This World We Live In.

Overall, Foster has charted thirteen singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including the Top Ten hits "Just Call Me Lonesome" (#10, 1992) and "Nobody Wins" (#2, 1993). In addition, he has written singles for other country artists, including, Gary Allan, Sara Evans, Keith Urban and Jack Ingram.

Radney Foster is also related to Mark Foster of indie buzz band, Foster The People.

Biography

Radney Foster was born July 20, 1959, in Del Rio, Texas, as the second of four children. His father was a lawyer who also sang and played guitar; by age 12, Foster himself began playing guitar as well.

After graduating high school, Foster attended University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he became a member of the Gamma Sigma chapter of Phi Gamma Delta. He dropped out in 1979 and, at the advice of veteran songwriter Randy Goodrum, moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in pursuit of a country music career. However, after finding no success in Nashville, he returned to college to finish his degree, while playing at various local venues in his spare time.

Musical career

Foster & Lloyd

Foster moved to Nashville after graduating college and met his future wife, who was attending Vanderbilt University. In 1985, he had found work at MTM Publishing Company as a songwriter and met Bill Lloyd, who co-wrote the Foster's song "Since I Found You"; which became a Top Ten hit for the Sweethearts of the Rodeo. In 1986, Foster formed the duo Foster & Lloyd and received a recording contract with RCA Records Nashville that year. Between 1986 and 1990, they would record three studio albums and charted nine singles on the country charts. The two parted ways amicably in 1990, as Foster thought that their songs were not suitable for being recorded by a duo. One of the tracks from Foster & Lloyd's debut album, "Don't Go Out", was released by Tanya Tucker in 1990 as a duet with T. Graham Brown.

In December 2010, Foster & Lloyd reunited to record a new CD.

Solo career

1992–2000: Arista Records

Two years after the disestablishment of Foster & Lloyd, Foster signed to Arista Records' Nashville division as a solo artist. His first album for the label, Del Rio, TX 1959 (named for Foster's birthplace and year of birth), produced two consecutive Top Ten hits in its first two singles: "Just Call Me Lonesome" and "Nobody Wins", which respectively reached #10 and #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts. Two more singles, "Easier Said Than Done" and "Hammer and Nails", also reached Top 40, peaking at #20 and #34, respectively.

In 1994, Foster began work on his second album for Arista. Tentatively titled Never Say Die, the album was re-titled Labor of Love, a title under which it would ultimately be released. After the first single (which was the title track) failed to make Top 40, Arista delayed the album's release twice so that it would not compete with a compilation album entitled Mama's Hungry Eyes: A Tribute to Merle Haggard, to which Foster (along with Pam Tillis) had contributed the track "The Running Kind". Steve Ripley, lead guitarist and vocalist for the country band The Tractors, was then brought in to remix "Willin' to Walk" — the second single from Labor of Love — for radio, before the album was finally released in April 1995. Ultimately, neither "The Running Kind" nor any of the three singles from Labor of Love reached the Top 40 on the country charts. Shortly before the release of Labor of Love, Foster and his wife of twelve years separated, ultimately filing for divorce.

Also in 1994, Foster contributed the song "Close Up the Honky Tonks" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Foster's third and final album for Arista, 1999's See What You Want to See, featured a more pop-oriented sound than his first two albums did. This album produced one minor single on the country charts in the #74-peaking "Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)" (which would later be recorded by the Dixie Chicks in 2003). Also included on this album was "Raining on Sunday", a song which Keith Urban recorded for his 2002 album Golden Road and released as a single in 2003. Foster's rendition featured backing vocals from Darius Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish. Keith Urban revisited this album again when he covered "I'm In" for his 2009 album Defying Gravity. Urban released it as a single on May 10, 2010 where it reached #2 on the US Country charts and #1 on the Canadian Country charts.

2001–2006: Dualtone Records

In 2001, Foster signed to Dualtone Records. His first album for the label, Are You Ready for the Big Show?, included a re-recording of the song "Texas in 1880", which Foster had originally recorded while a member of Foster & Lloyd. This re-recording, which featured Pat Green, peaked at #54 on the country charts. Foster followed this album with 2002's Another Way to Go. One of its tracks, "A Real Fine Place to Start" (another collaboration with Ducas) was later recorded by Sara Evans as the title track to her 2005 album Real Fine Place, from which it was released as a single; Evans's rendition of the song became a Number One hit in 2005. Foster's third album for Dualtone, This World We Live In, was issued in 2006. Unlike his previous two albums for Dualtone, however, this one provided no chart singles.

2009–present: Devil's River

Foster has started releasing his music on his own label, Devil's River. On September 1, 2009, Foster released his latest album on Devil's River, titled Revival under the band name "Radney Foster and the Confessions". In conjunction with the release of Revival, Foster also released a feature length DVD documentary that explored the making of the album titled Behind The Confessions. The 90-minute film was directed by Sundance award-winning filmmaker Jeff Horny and was co-produced by Foster, his wife Cyndi and Joe David Garza (editor) . In addition to the traditional CD and DVD formats, Foster also released all of the new album and documentary content on a new format called Interactive Flash Drive(TM) "VIP Pass". The interactive flash drive resembles a VIP Pass and gives purchasers access to pre-show "meet and greets" along with DRM-free digital audio and video.

Other releases

In 2005, Foster released a website-only album on RadneyFoster.com titled And Then There's Me: The Back Porch Sessions containing 11 acoustic-only tracks.

Foster also produced two albums for the Randy Rogers Band: their 2006 album Just a Matter of Time and 2008's Randy Rogers Band.

2009's Revival contained a 5-song EP titled The Chosen Few available to the first thousand orders on his website.