Fan-tastic Foster

Independent music maker delights fans at The Pavilion

Charenton was “Redneck Rock-n-Roll” country style June 17th with Louisiana native Frank Foster performing a nearly two-hour show with no opening band. A stranger to some in the audience, a hero to others, the packed house at The Pavilion in Cypress Bayou Casino • Hotel’s complex was heavy with bearded men and their women.

The burley men knew all the words to the songs but the women weren’t left behind. They were up on their feet or swaying in the seats.

Who is Frank Foster?

One of Foster’s soundmen said he is a self-made music maker, really unusual in the business. The songs he writes are not formula, they come from life.

“That’s one of his interests, getting back to good country music and he maintains that I think,” said Charlie Lott, Deep South Productions front house soundman. “I come from a rock and roll background and this is a rock and roll band, but doing country music. He does have some great, old slow style country songs, too, and I like that. I love Texas style and he’s right there with a Louisiana blend.”

Jacob Wright, 35, from Arkansas living in Church Point as home base for work, came to Charenton — when he should have been offshore — just to see “his boy,” Frank Foster. He has been listening to him for six years.

“I’m an anchor handler, I move drilling rigs. His music pretty much relates to everything we do,” Wright said. “It just helps you make it through.”

Wright can’t point out a favorite song because he knows the words to every single song that Foster has recorded —six albums to date. Foster’s song “Unwind” plays on his alarm clock. When asked about the number of men in the audience that appeared to know the words to Foster’s songs, Wright said it’s because it’s Louisiana, an oilfield state.

One Of The Boys

Foster worked offshore before he started singing about it and as he pursued the career that now carries him across the U.S. full time.

“Blue Collar Boys — I’ve been blue collar all my life,” Wright said. “If you look around, I can point out to you the guys who work offshore and the guys who have learned about (Foster) from the guys that work offshore. So, it all goes back to offshore.”

The June 17 concert was his first time to see Foster live. Wright was always offshore when he played at the Rox or other venues within reach.

Where Foster Comes From

Home is between Summerfield and Haynesville, Louisiana. After high school graduation, Foster was playing basketball on scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Pembrook. He bought a guitar his junior year having always loved music. In a month or so he figured out about six chords, the same six chords he still plays, he said — and wrote a couple of songs.

“I came home to Louisiana for Christmas. My dad and brother and I were night fishing,” Foster said. “We set out some hooks and came back to the bank just sitting around the fire and I said, ‘I’ve got something to show y’all.’ ”

Foster said they were blown away with his songs and even though they were family, the support was all he needed to continue. He played for pleasure a couple years during college but not in public. When college was over he moved back home, flat broke without a dime and living in the room where he’d been raised since birth.

“I got a job offshore. My dad was oilfield but worked on land,” Foster said. “He told me if I wanted to make some money, ‘You need to get in the oilfield.’ I didn’t plan on doing it forever but I needed to make some money.”

Foster stayed out about six years total taking his guitar with him. The whole time he was writing songs and played them for the guys offshore.

“Two or three years of doing that, they told me, ‘this stuff is really good. We’re not blowing smoke. You need to go try it,’” Foster said.

The Big Step

At first he was still in Louisiana dating a gal he’d met while in college in North Carolina. He moved back there while still working offshore so she could finish a nursing degree. Until they took a leap and moved to Nashville.

“When she came home with her cap and gown, I think on a Tuesday, I asked her what’s the plan,” Foster said. “I told her I wanted to move to Nashville. She’s always been my biggest supporter. We were in Nashville house shopping on Friday.”

It was 2009 and for a year he didn’t know what to do. Because he was writing his own songs, he started going to songwriter nights and ran into Topher Petersen.

Foster met Petersen as a fill-in steel guitar player at a songwriter’s night in Printers Alley, Nashville. Petersen played three songs and Foster played three songs. Petersen gave him such a hard time while singing, Foster told him later there was a possibility he might have to get rough.

Instead, they talked, had a few drinks and the rest is history. They went on the road together.

Petersen knew Chris Lohr who had a home studio and that’s where Foster cut the first two albums. Foster wrote the songs and Topher played all the instruments except maybe drums. Lohr played in the band for a while.

“We gained so much momentum with those albums, touring, but no radio involved,” Foster said. “That’s when social media started coming around. I’d bring the CDs to the guys offshore, and they’d introduce the music to someone else. In a couple of years we were a touring band two weeks at a time in a van with a trailer. We didn’t have the bus then. Times were rough, but we toured and I’d go back offshore two weeks.”

After nearly three years with a split career, Foster said he took a leap of faith and quit his oilfield job. His touring increased and his career took a ten-fold jump into full time music career. Social media and word of mouth are the reasons Foster gives for having a successful career.

“Until this past November when my wife and I had our first son together, she was — if she had-a wrote and could sing, I wouldn’t have a job,” Foster laughed. “She did everything else, booking agent, manager, merchandise girl, she’s done everything, forever.”

Because of the new baby, Fox Foster, this is the first year Ashli Foster hasn’t been on the road with her singing husband.

Professional Admiration

“I don’t know a lot of other (entertainers), but Frank is just a regular guy that you would like. He’s very genuine and his songs come from the heart. He’s got passion. A lot of musicians start with some passion and leave it behind. He’s still burning it. Everything he sings about he does. He’s a hard worker,” Lott said.

One of his band members admitted having a lot of friends with crappy gigs in Nashville while he is on the road playing with Frank Foster. They all agreed he’s a great guy to work with and they love him as much as the fans.

“He’s written every word of every song he ever sings, the only person,” Petersen said. “We will write the music, but he writes the words. He may be the only person that’s ever done that.”

“I can promise you every oilfield man has heard of Frank Foster,” Wright said. “If they haven’t heard of him, they ain’t been round the oilfield because people my age know about that man right there. I heard about him from a man 10 years younger than me. I listened to one song and I was hooked. I went to buying albums.”

“I’m sitting on the Wal-Mart shelf just like everybody else but I’m a one man show. That’s a mind blower for people,” Foster said. “If you find the right avenue, you can do it.”

Credit Where It’s Due

When Foster said he took a leap of faith, he means it. His lyrics have both God and whiskey in them.

“I’ve always walked that line,” Foster said. “My dad was a wildcat and my mom was a saint. That’s the way we were brought up. Mom would have us in church and then we’d come home and dad would be cooking and drinking.

“When I sit down to write a song, I don’t intentionally put the Lord in it,” Foster said. “I feel like he just finds his way in there. There’s a line in one of my songs, ‘Look at me Lord, I can’t complain, I said one prayer and you answered everything.’ I remember sitting offshore and praying, ‘If you just give me the shot, I’ll do the rest and always give you glory.’ And we always have.”

Whether its true or not, somebody’s listening, buying his music and going to his concerts.

By the way, for those deer hunters, Foster’s tips on cooking deer steak is to slice and tender it, add salt, pepper Tony’s, douse it with flour and fry it till it floats. You don’t mess with perfection, Foster said.