12
SEPTEMBER 29–OCTOBER 6, 2021
SOUND CHECK
WHAT’S PLAYING AROUND
THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Jonathan Foster takes the
stage at Terminal Gravity
By Katy Nesbitt
Go! Magazine
E
NTERPRISE — Singer-
songwriter Jonathan Foster
brings his solo show, featuring
songs from his new album “Lan-
tern Shade,” to Terminal Grav-
ity’s outdoor stage on Friday,
Oct. 8.
The show starts at 6 p.m. For
reservations, visit www.terminal-
gravitybrewing.com.
Packing all the essentials into
a van ahead of a two-month tour,
Foster said his home was also
under an evacuation order from
the nearby Fawn Fire outside of
Redding, California.
“A new fire sparked up 6 miles
away,” Foster said. “I might pack
it up until Thanksgiving.”
Coming off a few weeks break
from a summer tour, Foster said
working as a solo artist made it
easier to get back on the road. In
three months he said he logged
20,000 miles.
“I have an advantage by play-
ing small venues, so I was able
to get a full tour booked for the
summer,” he said.
The music industry — from
venues to artists and all the
people who make concerts hap-
pen — has been decimated by
the COVID-19 pandemic. Foster
said it’s still tough trying to line
up gigs.
“There are still a lot of people
sitting at home and shows are
getting canceled,” Foster said.
With 10 new songs, along with
a broad catalog of music written
over the course of a lifetime, he
has a lot of material on which to
draw when he performs.
“I am still playing songs I
wrote as a teenager, and there
are songs I play every single
night, but diversity is the spice
of life and I’m not bashful to put
a song away for a while or play a
request,” he said.
Having a lot of time off gave
Foster the space to write the
songs for “Lantern Shade” and
possibly more than a dozen oth-
ers. A prolific writer, Foster said
only a few make it on stage or
the recording studio.
“I don’t even want to count
the songs I don’t perform — it
takes a lot of songs to make a
10-song album,” he said.
He usually tries songs out
on audiences before they are
recorded, and he said this sum-
mer’s tour was a litmus test for
the new work.
“The songs from the new
album hadn’t been performed,
so I didn’t know if they fit the
meter or not,” Foster said.
“What’s interesting with the solo
structure of those songs is they
are still taking on new identities. I
am figuring out things that don’t
work — maybe changing the
structure of the words to try and
keep it fresh.”
A graduate of the State
University of New York College
of Environmental Science and
11am-8pm Tuesday-Saturday
Keli Tims/Contributed photo
Jonathan Foster brings his guitar, a harmonica and his songs inspired by his
love of the natural world to Terminal Gravity Oct. 8 at 6 p.m.
Forestry, Foster came to Califor-
nia for a job in wetland ecology,
and he’d lived there for 20 years.
While music had helped pay the
bills in college and was always
a part of his life, Foster said he
was in his 30s when he decided
to steer his focus from the left
side of his brain to the right.
Following the recovery of an
illness he took a three-week trip
to Australia. Foster said he real-
ized, despite his successful ca-
reer, he was burning out and life
was too short. Around that same
time the internet started shifting
how music was promoted and
shared. He said breaking into the
industry wasn’t just showing up
at a local open mic night, saving
a lot of money to make an album
or attracting enough attention to
get a recording contract.
“The internet helped people
like me a lot — I could afford
to start recording songs in the
digital age,” Foster said.
With six albums under his
belt — including “American
Highway,” a collection of songs
recorded live — his repertoire
of Americana-folk songs reflect
his love of nature and celebrate
the seasons and life’s journey.
To listen to Foster’s music, visit
www.jfmusic.net/songs.