by Paul T. Mueller
Life is not fair, as we all know and are often reminded. Case in point: Radney Foster. Come on – still looking young in his mid-50s? Check. Same wavy hair, now turned to silver? Check. Serious chops on guitar and a fine voice? Check and check. Catalog of excellent songs? Check, check, check and so on. All that wrapped up in one guy? Clearly not fair.
Fortunately, Foster also comes across as a pretty nice guy, which could explain why his June 26 show in the Houston suburb of Tomball was met with enthusiasm and not envy. Main Street Crossing, a pleasant restaurant/performance space in a restored building on the main drag, was the venue for the solo gig, which consisted mostly of fresh takes on well-known (and well-loved) hits.
The 90-minute, 14-song set drew heavily from Foster’s early work, including five songs from his first solo album, Del Rio, TX 1959. Foster led off with the aptly titled “Louisiana Blue” and then cranked It up with “Just Call Me Lonesome.” Later in the show came excellent renditions of the cowboy epic “Went for a Ride”; “Nobody Wins,” which many in the crowd of 120 or so turned into a sing-along, and “Closing Time,” a weepy drinking-to-forget song that Foster described as cathartic, the way country songs used to be.
“This next song changed my life,” Foster said in introducing “Angel Flight,” a quietly powerful first-person account of an Air Force pilot who flies fallen soldiers back home. He said the song came from a conversation with its co-writer, singer-songwriter Darden Smith; Foster now participates in Songwriting with Soldiers, a program Smith founded last year to help soldiers deal with painful issues through songwriting retreats.
Next came a rousing version of “Texas in 1880,” which was a hit for Foster & Lloyd, an acclaimed but short-lived duo with Bill Lloyd. Foster introduced the song by recounting how he left college to move to Nashville and pursue his dream – a career in songwriting. The song is about rodeo, he said, but also about dreamers of all kinds.
Also well done and just as enthusiastically received were some less-familiar songs: “Raining on Sunday,” “Half of My Mistakes,” “Folding Money,” “I’m In” and “A Little Revival.” Foster tugged at the heartstrings with “I Know You Can Hear Me,” a song about fathers and sons that he said he wrote about his own father, and the show closer, “Godspeed (Sweet Dreams),” a sweet I-love-you he wrote for his son, then 5 years old, when his ex-wife moved overseas and took his son with her.
Radney Foster’s career these days is not the rocket ride of his early career, but as a writer and performer, he can still bring it.
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