Shona Foster – Our New Favorite Singer

It seems that Shona Foster has been around a few years but I have obviously had my head (or at least my ears) in the sand elsewhere.  I came across her music having an after work drink in a local watering hole and after a minute or two (and after having scraped my jaw from the floor) was compelled to ask the barman who one earth was singing. He was able to tell me at once (it was his choice of music and it seems Ms Foster does have a hardcore of fans of her small but inventive catalogue).

I guess I am now one of them after having listened (many times) to her debut album The Moon and You. Do you remember the thrill, when you were young, of encountering an artist for the first time and being completely swept away by the world they create in their music? I certainly remembered that feeling but I had not had it for a long, long time.  I have Ms Foster to thank for experiencing those dizzy almost hyperventilic (I have no idea if that word exists but it does now) feelings about an album of music again.

Born in Scotland but raised in Yorkshire hers is a rare voice yet there are echoes of days and artists of the past.  I was certainly inclined to believe that Kate Bush may have quietly had a child given up for adoption two decades and a bit ago but Foster is more than just Bush reincarnate.  Lyrically as plaintive, and certainly musically as intriguing, there is a groovier edge to her work.

Foster has released one album in her career so far – last year’s wonderful The Moon and You.  It may be that you have to have a taste for a certain quirkiness but that’s right up my particular alley – musically speaking at least.  Her music has been variously described as baroque bravado, comprised of fairies and wood nymphs and beguilingly haunting – and I would certainly agree. So, enjoy one of the tracks from her album – Love and War – and pay a visit to her website to find out more about this extraordinarily promising new (well, to me) talent.