Ruthie Foster

Just last year, the blues legend Ruthie Foster took home her first-ever Grammy, winning Best Contemporary Blues Album for her album Mileage. The award was a long time coming for the star, who has been hustling to make a life as an artist possible for over three decades. Foster was first signed to a major label after completing her tour of duty as part of the US Navy. She then abandoned music in 1993 to take care of her mom who had fallen ill. Shortly after her mother’s death, the singer decided to find a path back to music as an independent artist. “I wrote this thing on a sticky note and it just said ‘Just say yes,’” she recalls. That little note-to-self stuck with Foster as she re-pursued her dream. She has that sticky note to thank for all that’s come after, so she’s honoring it with her latest album Just Say Yes (out August 28 via Sun Records). Ruthie reunited with her Mileage collaborators Tyler Bryant and Rebecca Lovell (of Larkin Poe) in Nashville, working out of Bryant’s new studio. This time around, Larkin Poe collaborator Megan Lovell joined them in the studio as well as Megan’s husband Mike Seal. “Every last one of these songs are about some aspect of my life,” Foster explains. “This was my way of being true to who I am and knowing that I’m in yet another transition in my life, which is how these albums tend to happen.”