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Songs:
No One To Turn The Windmill Off
Before the Prairie Met the Plow
Arkansas Farmboy
Life of a Poor Boy
The Many Faces of Charles Edward Brown
Dixie In My Eye
Waitin' For The Train To Run
Real Country Woman
Jerusalem Ridge
Muley Was A Railroad Man
Christ Was Born in Bethlehem
Lonesome Bill
I Wonder Why You Said Goodbye
I Pray My Way Out of Trouble

Hay Holler Records
P.O. Box 868
Blacksburg, VA 24063
HH-1352
c 2000

Billy Joe Foster's multi-talents started at an early age in Oklahoma. He played at festivals and learned all the instruments and then joined Country Gazette, Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, and the Ricky Skaggs band. His main instruments now are fiddle and mandolin, but the credits on the album show him capable of playing all the instruments.

The album reflects the traditional rural background. Many of the songs are tributes to a life fading from view: "Before the Prairie Met the Plow," written with Keith Little in response to the loss of the prairie and change in Indian life as the farmer moved across the plains, "No One To Turn The Windmill," and the "Arkansas Farmboy" show the changing times.

"Waiting For the Train To Run," adds a hard-driving banjo to the standard train song with the lovers coming and going. Three of the songs were written by Billy Joe, one each by Ernest Tubb and Loretta Lynn and Carl Jackson. One highlight for this reviewer was the Bill Monroe instrumental, "Jerusalem Ridge" where each instrument takes a showcase break. The album is a good blend of voices, instruments and well done songs. Definitely worth looking for the group or the CD!