About David Gilbert Foster
David Foster is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Galax, Virginia. David has lived in Horse Cave, Kentucky for the past 30 years where he is the President and CEO of the American Cave Conservation Association (ACCA). ACCA also operates the American Cave Museum and Hidden River Cave.
David performed for a number of years as the guitarist/singer for the progressive bluegrass group Soulgrass and more recently the Celtic/Bluegrass group Barrenhart. Dave also is the keyboardist for several local cover bands including: Nightfall, The Unpredictables, and The Get Down.
David has performed throughout the United States at a variety of venues including: The International Newgrass Festival, International Equestrienne Games, Andy Griffith Playhouse, Bowling Green International Festival, Middle Tennessee Highland Games, Glasgow Highland Games, Kentucky Homefront, KET Jubilee, and the Horse Cave Heritage Festival.
David writes a variety of music, including; Rock, Bluegrass, Folk and Celtic. His new solo album AMERICAN DREAM features 9 original songs and showcases David’s songwriting and diversity.
The first song from the album, WE ARE ONE was released in April 2020. Dave teamed up with musician Masako Jeffers and recording engineer David Barrick to produce the song and release the video honoring the essential workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The video also features local musicians, Sandra Dye, Mareika Tisdale, Quentin Farris, and special guest John Cowan, of New Grass Revival fame, on vocals and bass. Please give it a listen and share the love!
Cave Music, Nylon Highway and Cave Conservation
David’s back story is an interesting one. In 1981, he joined the National Speleological Society and began a lifelong hobby of cave exploring. During that time, David composed a number of songs about cavers and cave exploring. He entered three of these songs in the Society’s national ballad competition at their 1981 Convention and won first, second and third prize. As a result, the Richmond Area Speleological Society (RASS) offered to underwrite the cost of an album of caving songs. In 1982, David and RASS release NYLON HIGHWAY which contained the three contest winning songs THE DAMAGE DONE, NYLON HIGHWAY, THE BALLAD OF THE ILL FATED CAVER and six additional tunes.
The cave exploring and cave music, led David into a career working for the American Cave Conservation Association. Dave became the Association’s Executive Director in 1987 and led restoration efforts to clean up Hidden River Cave, one of the most polluted cave systems in America at the time. Dave directed the creation of the American Cave Museum and the reopening of Hidden River Cave in 1993 as well as a recent expansion of the cave. To learn more about this remarkable conservation success story in the town of Horse Cave, please visit the website: Hidden River Cave Website.
Soulgrass
Dave was the co-founder and guitarist for the progressive bluegrass band Soulgrass which featured Curtis Burch on dobro, Billy Ray Lathum on banjo, Debbie Heavers (now known as Debra Lyn) on vocals and bass, and occasionally Mike Schroeder on mandolin, Joel Whittinghill on fiddle and Joe Larsen on banjo. Soulgrass’ first album was released in 2002. It received airplay on more than 300 radio stations throughout the U.S. Australia, France, England and the Netherlands. The band headlined the Mayberry Days festival in Mount Airy, North Carolina and performed in venues such as Nashville’s Station Inn and Johnson City’s Down Home Pickin’ Parlor.
On March 20, 2023, David and Debra released a new Soulgrass album NOBODY KNOWS in Dolby Atmos/Spatial Audio, featuring Billy Ray Lathum. The album includes 7 never-released songs recorded in 2003 and excerpts from “Bluegrass Breakdown,” a live radio show recorded on 12/26/02 with the band. During his long career, Billy Ray toured and performed with Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys, Ricky Nelson and the Dillards. He also perfomed on numerous records and left an amazing legacy. This album is to honor his memory and bring to light his incredible history and contributions to Bluegrass music.
WQUT Best of 81
David’s first foray into recording and producing an original song was in 1981. Dave was fresh out of Emory and Henry College with a degree in music theory. Dave’s song LOVE IS ALL AROUND YOU was recorded in Bristol, Virginia and was entered into radio station WQUT’s Best of ‘81 contest, a radio contest sponsored by John Anderson. LOVE IS ALL AROUND YOU was one of the 10 finalists out of hundreds of entries and was included on the WQUT Best of ‘81 album which was released regionally.
Barrenhart
In 2016, David teamed up with mandolinist Hazel Johnson and bass player/bagpiper Greg Cutcliff to form the Celtic group Barrenhart. The group soon added fiddler Masako Jeffers and the group became a fixture at regional Highland Games and Scottish music events. Barrenhart released a CD of traditional celtic tunes, old time tunes and a couple of folk songs, including the song Tumbling Down, one of David’s originals. To read more, please visit the Barrenhart website: www.barrenhart.com
