Radney Foster

Radney Foster began by writing songs for others before attaining both sales success and critical notice as one half of Foster & Lloyd, then shifted to a solo career in 1991 built around his thoughtful style of country composition. Born in Del Rio, Texas, he started playing guitar at age twelve. While enrolled at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, he performed at local clubs and later left school to move to Nashville. In 1985 MTM publishing hired him as a staff songwriter, and two months after his arrival he formed a writing partnership with Bill Lloyd. Their song “Since I Found You” became a Top Ten hit for the Sweethearts of the Rodeo, leading RCA to sign the duo on the strength of their demo recordings. Foster & Lloyd released three albums between 1987 and 1990, scored several additional Top Ten singles, and received positive reviews.

After their third album underperformed, the pair parted ways amicably, freeing Foster to record alone. His debut solo album, Del Rio, Texas, 1959, appeared in 1992 and earned both commercial and critical praise; four of its singles reached the Top 40, including the Top Ten entry “Just Call Me Lonesome” and “Nobody Wins,” which peaked one position shy of number one on the country chart. The 1995 follow-up, Labor of Love, found greater favor with critics than with listeners. On his third solo release, 1999’s See What You Want to See, Foster moved toward pop and rock influences. He then left Arista and signed with Dualtone, which issued the live album Are You Ready for the Big Show? in 2001, a project rooted in traditional country. The 2002 studio album Another Way to Go added classic-style R&B to his country palette. In 2004 he issued the acoustic set And Then There’s Me (The Back Porch Sessions), available only online, followed in 2006 by another Dualtone release, This World We Live In.

Foster rejoined Bill Lloyd for the 2011 album It’s Already Tomorrow and returned to solo work with Everything I Should Have Said in 2014. Early in 2017 he appeared in the musical Troubadour, which featured songs by Kristian Bush. Later that year he released For You to See the Stars, an album issued alongside a book of stories.