Josephine Foster is an American singer-songwriter and musician from Colorad… Read Full Bio ↴Josephine Foster is an American singer-songwriter and musician from Colorado. In addition to her solo recordings, she has performed with Born Heller (a duo featuring bassist Jason Ajemian) and The Children's Hour (an indie pop band with songwriter Andrew Bar), plus she has releases under the name Josephine Foster and the Supposed and Josephine Foster & The Victor Herrero Band.

As an adolescent Foster worked as a funeral and wedding singer, and aspired to become an opera singer. After her studies she began to record demos of her own songs, resulting in the early recordings There Are Eyes Above (2000), an album of ukulele accompanied songs strongly influenced by Tin Pan Alley, and an album of children's songs, Little Life (2001).

For several years she worked as a singing teacher in Chicago, recording and performing with a variety of musical acts on the side including Born Heller, a project with free jazz-bassist Jason Ajemian, and The Children's Hour, a pop band formed with songwriter Andrew Bar. In 2004, joined by her occasional backing band The Supposed (Brian Goodman on guitar and Rusty Peterson on drums), she released an album of psychedelic rock called All the Leaves Are Gone which has drawn comparison to Patti Smith and Jefferson Airplane.

The songs on her first solo studio album Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You (2005, Locust Music) evoke American folk and blues forms of the early 20th century. A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, released in 2006, features unorthodox interpretations of 19th century German Lieder. This Coming Gladness, was released in 2008 and featured the contributions of Victor Herrero on electric guitar and percussion by Alex Neilson. In early 2009 she released an album of 27 Emily Dickinson song settings entitled Graphic as a Star with UK label Fire Records. Thereafter began her work in rural Spain with her husband Victor Herrero collecting and arranging collections of folk songs resulting in the recordings Anda Jaleo (a resetting of Garcia Lorca´s piano/voice transcriptions of Spanish songs) and Perlas (a selection of Spanish songs made by Foster herself) respectively.

In 2012 she returned to Colorado to record a new solo album Blood Rushing which took inspiration from local themes from her childhood such as the western geography, native rhythms, and imagined mythology. The album was recorded in a Boulder yoga studio by the Andrija Tokic and featured the ensemble of Victor Herrero on classical and electric guitars, Paz Lenchantin on bass, Heather Trost on violin, and Ben Trimble on pueblo skin drums.

Foster released a new full-length album, I'm A Dreamer on November 12th, 2013.

Hominy Grits
Josephine Foster Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Give to the world a bit of hominy, hominy

Hominy, hominy grits!

And it will butter all yer troubles away

You know it pleases

Me to serve you

Breakfast in the morning

Hot off the cradle

You were fine and able

My momma sent me

From the penitentiary

She stole the keys from

The warden of the century

The century

Give to the world a bit of hominy, hominy

Hominy, hominy grits!

And it will butter all yer troubles away

You know it pleases

Me to unnerve you

With my ukulele

I got a lover

He's my little baby

I nurse him at the table

'Cause he says he's feeble

And pack him up a sundown

In my little rundown

Limousine

My limousine

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of this song by Josephine Foster talk about hominy grits and how they can make everything better. The repetition of the phrase "hominy, hominy grits!" in the chorus emphasizes the importance of this dish. The singer talks about how serving breakfast to someone can bring them pleasure, and that it pleases her to serve. The lyrics take a darker turn when the singer mentions that she was sent to her current location by her mother, who stole the keys from the warden of a penitentiary. This suggests that the singer may have come from a troubled past.

In the following verse, the singer mentions that she plays the ukulele and has a lover who she takes care of because he is feeble. She also mentions her "little rundown limousine," which could suggest that even though she is in a difficult situation, she is doing what she can to make the best of it.

Overall, the lyrics of "Hominy Grits" are evocative of a simpler time when a comforting home-cooked meal could make everything better. However, the reference to the singer being in a penitentiary adds a layer of complexity to the song's meaning.

Line by Line Meaning

Give to the world a bit of hominy, hominy
Sharing a bit of hominy with the world is a good deed

Hominy, hominy grits!
A reference to comforting soul food

And it will butter all yer troubles away
Eating hominy grits will make you forget your troubles

You know it pleases
It brings satisfaction

Me to serve you
I enjoy serving you

Breakfast in the morning
The meal I serve is breakfast

Hot off the cradle
The hominy grits are freshly cooked

You were fine and able
You are strong and capable

My momma sent me
I was sent by my mother

From the penitentiary
I was released from jail

She stole the keys from
My mother took the keys from