Foster has done some very interesting, un-unplugged things with the leaves turn upside down. Mostly recorded live at that venerable Winston-Salem institution, The Garage, Foster has taken the recording in seemingly contrary directions but has ended up with a disc that is quite unified and more than a bit conceptually daring.

One sonic direction Foster has taken through his production vision gives what is on the surface an extremely minimalist instrumental and vocal presentation a Technicolor aura. Foster has interposed found sounds (one seems to be bacon sizzling in a skillet), odd clips from radio evangelists, and brief, moody studio instrumental segues that give the disc an Andy-Warhol-goes-techno/acoustic-in-the-predawn-hours feel that is quite ingenious. According to Foster, he wanted the EP to seem like a haphazard spin across the late-night radio dial.

As for the other direction, rather than this live recording being a group of songs surrounded by thunderous applause and supportive yells of adulation from adoring fans, in the finest indie fashion Foster has quite clearly caught the mindless bar chatter and the scraping of chairs and the sounds of bottles breaking, as though he has turned the microphones toward the audience rather than toward himself. In mixing the bar sounds with the performances, we get the idea of what a performer actually hears as he tries to create his art for the paying public. We hear quite clearly the interference the performer must overcome. Within the context of the performances and this recording, the crowd sounds almost indifferent, even frequently distracted and unfocused. Foster succeeds in casting the performance as an intimidating prospect, a beast to be conquered. After opening with the Pinetops tune "Lottery," Foster quips, "Welcome to the late, late, late, late show" in response to a scattered smatter of subdued applause. The vibe is very un-rock star.

But Jeffrey Dean Foster is sneaking up on us here. The unusual production aesthetic and mix actually work to demonstrate Foster's considerable talent as he eventually supercedes the crowd interference, overcoming the static in the channels with the force of his performance and his brilliant lyrics. Foster reprises several of his Pinetops tracks ("Lottery," "Jesus Spoke," and the incandescent "So Lonesome I Could Fly"), but it is his new material that shows the songwriting power that is Mr. Foster's ace in the hole. There is no avoiding his lyrical images and his dry insightful musings. His plaintive vocal on "Forgotten My Name" should remind listeners of Steve Forbert in his more melancholy moods. This song alone won me over.

I saw her sister, I saw her candy-red hair
Down at the courthouse in a dress she used to wear
She said "My sister's no genius, but at least she's not insane"
Baby made her escape and she's forgotten my name

While he's had a 20-year career and, in his words, has written a "truckload of songs," Mr. Foster remains something of an underground, word-of-mouth phenomenon outside his regional base. Unless you bought one of the 3,000 copies of The Pinetops Above Ground and Vertical (unlikely since half of them were sold in Europe) or you are from around Winston-Salem, North Carolina, it's doubtful you've heard or heard of Jeffrey Dean Foster. Yet his the leaves turn upside down clearly demonstrates that is a condition you'll want to remedy if you are a fan of heady singer-songwriters.


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A talented North Carolina songwriter and a twang-pop vet from the ‘80s (with The Right Profile) and early ‘90s (Carneys), Jeffrey Dean Foster made a splash in 1998 with the Pinetops and their disc Above Ground and Vertical. This acoustic live EP is a solo stop-gap between studio records; as such the low-fi, clinking-beer-bottle ambiance conveys pleasures of the fleetingly intimate, rather than the ornately crafted, sense.
     The charm of new compositions (the strummy, jangly “Lover True”, which neatly plays with the phrasings of “lover” and “love her”) and Pinetops material (the beautiful spectral drone of the aptly titled “So Lonesome I Could Fly”) gets cemented by Foster’s keening upper register, a satisfying cross between Roger McGuinn and Alex Chilton. There’s left-field artistry afoot as well: Looped in short-wave and electronic sounds and brief keyboard segments serves as segues, lending the set a spooky but appropriate autumnal vibe.
                                                             -  FRED MILLS


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Most live albums feature hordes of screaming fans singing along to their favorite songs while the band takes a self-indulgent breather. Not so on Jeffrey Dean Fosters’ limited edition seven-song EP, The Leaves Turn Upside Down. “It illustrates what it’s like to play to all kinds of people in a bar,” he says. “Not always pretty, but occasionally rewarding.” Mixing songs from studio sessions and live shows, the former Pinetops frontman creates beautiful pastiche of stark contrasts. Several of the tunes appeared on the Pinetops’ “Above Ground and Vertical” (Monolith). An unplugged “Jesus Spoke” is full of great lines, such as “a full-blown case of the been everywheres”. Similarly, the live redux of “So Lonesome I Could Fly” just soars. As people talk over the song, Foster sounds completely alone even in a room full of people, and he makes you feel that, too.. Among the new numbers is “Skin & Bone”, which opens with a melancholy piano and ramps up into a great guitar riff. The song’s about being a prisoner in yourself and finally breaking free and is beautifully paced, sort of winding down at the close as life does. “Forgotten My Name” is a poignant number about the one that got away: “my sister’s no genius/but at least she’s not insane/baby made her escape/she’s forgotten your name”. Throughout the lyrics and music are vintage Foster – thoughtful, heartfelt and rootsy. Each song is linked by spoken word, ambient samples and other sounds, evoking, as Foster says, “a foreign short-wave broadcast.” Overall, the record has a terrific texture that’s DIY and smooth at the same time. Certainly a great harbinger of the full-length record due out later this year. (Margot Carmichael Lester) 
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