Storytellers first and foremost: Legendary Texas Singer/Songwriter Radney Foster graces Bosque Arts Center Frazier Performance Hall stage with his songs and storytelling
CLIFTON – Proving that good country music and songs are timeless and trans-generational, all ages were represented in the audience – from pre-teen to 91 years young. Bosque County lovers of country music’s moving lyrics about real life enjoyed the opportunity to hear storyteller extraordinaire Radney Foster in the acoustically-comforting Frazier Performance Hall at the Bosque Arts Center.
The acoustic “just a man and his guitar” show with the legendary singer, offered an exceptionally intimate evening with the extraordinary storyteller and songwriter, who often recounted how a certain song was born and with who. Renowned country music star names like Randy Travis, Pat Green, Jimmy Webb, Darrell Brown, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman popped up as Foster ran through his 12-song set list.
Forty-somethings Danielle and Roman Ybarra grew up listening to Foster’s music in the nineties, especially loving the lyrics. Their friend Michael Richardson recalls listening to 1980s and 1990s country, and Foster while driving around with his grandparents – his mom’s car music choice was more a classic rock. Local artist Judy Parton accompanied her 91-year old mother for the concert.
For the evening, Foster created the relaxed “music on the back porch“ vibe as described in his 2017 book “For You To See The Stars,” from which he read the following passage:
“Growing up with my family the thing that bound us together more than anything else was music. Music was sacred. We sang in church on Sunday and that brought comfort, but the music on summer nights brought joy. Fireflies came out at sunset like magic and lit up our backyard. Daddy and his friends were playing music on the back porch and the lightning bugs were the lightshow. The music, the laughter, homemade ice cream, and a Mason jar full of glowing bugs meant that all was right with the world.
“The circle of wood, wire and voices on our back porch that filled the air on any Saturday night worth remembering, shaped and molded me from a boy to a man. It taught me empathy, faith, profanity, manners, a love of brown whiskey and the chords to “Long Black Veil.” If I close my eyes on my own back porch strumming a beat-up Gibson flat top, I am instantly there again, standing on my mama’s toes to dance with her before falling asleep to guitars, mandolins, and voices in harmony.”
After the concert Foster graciously met his fans, having a short chat, getting a photo with their musical hero, asking him to autograph the books and CD’s they purchased. Linda Lowrance brought her guitar with autographs of all the top country artists that performed at the BAC.
BAC Board Member and fellow musician Chad Holt got to introduce and meet one of his heroes that evening. Foster honored him by dedicating one of the evening’s song to him, the 1992 “Went for a Ride.” The song about black cowboy history was co-written with African-American country songwriter Alice Randall with lyrics that in just a few words paints a picture of cowboys in the pre-barbed wire West – ”It wasn't cowboys and ponies, it was horses and men. It wasn't school boys and ladies, it was cow-towns and sin.”
Other masterful lyrics by Foster and Jay Clementi came with Luke Bryan’s 2011 “I Knew You That Way,” about honor and love, even when you lose it, “The secret way long shadows bleed into the night, The Desperate way leaves in the fall hold colors tight The way that thunder knows the taste of summer rain, I knew you that way.”
“Often when I heard a song I liked, it turned out to be a Radney Foster song,” concert guest Kristina Taylor said. “And as I got older, they have come to mean more and different things to me now.”
One of the next generation of Foster fans, daughter Alex, accompanied her mom to the concert.
“I grew up listening to Foster, as did my kids,” Taylor said. “And it’s extra special that we can now enjoy a concert with these beloved songs together. Good country music transcends generations.”
Holt introduced upcoming singer/songwriter Logan Mac who started off the evening of music, just a man and his guitar too. His heartfelt lyrics about day-to-day life’s struggles, raw edged voice and unassuming guitar accompaniment spoke to the appreciative audience.
Rooted in traditional Country and the Red Dirt scene, Mac’s experiences as a husband, father of three, and worker in the oil and excavation industries all find form his authentic storytelling songs.
“Steel Toe Boots” is about making the decision to leave the oil field business. “Red Bird” is about seeing his dad’s and granddad-in law’s spirit in a red bird that showed up as he sat in a deer stand. A song written in the barn with a buddy after losing his father in 2022, “Dance Under the Stars” went viral, showing how the subject matter and Mac’s word resonate with people. During a studio visit, Foster saw Mac’s talent for storytelling, and helped him finish “Tonight in Tulsa” – a song which Mac had half-finished, but was stuck. Since then Foster mentors Mac on his singer/songwriter journey.
Two special songs wrapped up the unplugged evening, “A Little Revival,” for which Foster brought Mac back on the stage, and “Godspeed.”
Written for his five-year-old son as a lullaby, the lyrics of “Godspeed” inspire its use on many different touching occasions, like a sweet mother and son dance at a wedding, a soldier longingly singing to his kids through the telephone from his deployment in Afghanistan to the incredibly humbling etchings on a child’s headstone.
It was an evening of good ol’ back porch storytelling, with the performers offering their versions of three chords and the truth. It was the stories the singer/songwriter’s told, of how their songs came to be, the people they wrote them with and the people they represented that gave the special concert a deeper level of intimacy, which left the audience cherishing every single moment.
Photos & video by SIMONE WICHERS-VOSS
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