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.
The Golden Wooden Tone
Josephine Foster Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And find a dish of stone
Perhaps I would be fuller
If I started at the bone.
The reeds will cease to moan
For they are but fetters
Of the golden wooden tone!
I have ate the rose,
And now am served weed!
Expect the sun to treasure dust
As substitute for seed?
But which will carve my stomach least
And paint my lips the redder?
The hammered shell or the underneath?
I'm naught to know what's better!
Oh, I have ate the rose
And now am served weed
Expect the sun to treasure dust
As substitute for seed?
The lyrics of "The Golden Wooden Tone," by Josephine Foster, are both poetic and thought-provoking. The opening lines, "Throw away my food/And find a dish of stone/Perhaps I would be fuller/If I started at the bone," suggest a metaphorical stripping away of excess and a return to basics, in order to attain a sense of fullness or completeness. This is further suggested in the subsequent lines, "Blow away the leaves/The reeds will cease to moan/For they are but fetters/Of the golden wooden tone!" The image of a golden wooden tone may represent something precious, but also something that may weigh us down or hold us back.
The next stanza continues the theme of the singer's dissatisfaction with what they have been given: "I have ate the rose,/And now am served weed!/Expect the sun to treasure dust/As substitute for seed?" The contrast between the beautiful, sweet rose and the rough, less desirable weed is striking, and speaks to the idea that sometimes we are forced to accept less than we deserve. The final lines, "But which will carve my stomach least/And paint my lips the redder?/The hammered shell or the underneath?/I'm naught to know what's better!" suggest a deep uncertainty and sense of confusion about what is truly best for the singer.
Line by Line Meaning
Throw away my food
I don't want what I have anymore
And find a dish of stone
I want something more substantial
Perhaps I would be fuller
Maybe I would feel more satisfied if I started with less
If I started at the bone.
If I went straight to the source
Blow away the leaves
Get rid of distractions
The reeds will cease to moan
Then I can hear clearly
For they are but fetters
Things that hold me back
Of the golden wooden tone!
The beautiful sound that I'm striving for
I have ate the rose,
I've had the best
And now am served weed!
But now I'm settling
Expect the sun to treasure dust
Hoping for something great from something small
As substitute for seed?
In place of something that would grow
But which will carve my stomach least
Which will hurt me less
And paint my lips the redder?
Make me look and feel better
The hammered shell or the underneath?
The surface or what's beneath it
I'm naught to know what's better!
I can't decide what's best
Contributed by Tyler I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.