Kristen Foht, a St. Louis resident, released her first solo CD, "What You Need" in September, 2004. She's known for her raw emotion, honest lyrics and powerful voice. In a hard to define, folk-pop-rock-blues genre, friends use the word 'intense' because she imbues the same passion into all her music.
Born and raised in Milan, Illinois (by the Quad Cities), Kristen comes from a very musical family with whom she started performing at church functions when she was only five. After growing frustrated on the piano, she followed her parent's footsteps and picked up the guitar. By the end of her freshman year at the University of Missouri-Columbia (where she majored in magazine journalism and minored in theater), Kristen was playing music in Columbia at places like The Music Cafe, Bambino's Italian Restaurant, Mojo's, Shattered, the Chez and Mizzou's own version of Lilith Fair. For a short time, she was in a band called Tabla Rasa.
Upon moving to St. Louis she was "discovered" at an open mic at Java, Jazz and Blues in St. Charles. Soon she was playing regularly around St. Louis in solo gigs and through Acoustic Nights and Expression Sessions at places like Generations, Sally T's, Pony Expresso, Coffee With the Stars Cafe, Cafe Paradiso etc. She was then a part of the Suite 16 CD, a compilation album of St. Louis women singer/songwriters that met with success in the area. She played live on KDHX's "Riding Blue Highways" and her song "Halfway Full" was featured on a demo CD from the station. For a few months in 2004, she was a member of the band Epic3. She is a featured soloist on the GlennonSongs Christmas Album recorded at Clayton Studios that was released that year as well.
Kristen recorded "What You Need" at Miles Wonderland Studio owned by David Karns, former bassist for the Javier Mendoza Band.
Not long ago, Kristen was invited to be a visiting artist on the local cable program, The Big Brother and Itch'y show. In addition to an interview, the show shot Kristen's first music video for the song Tired. The show played for the month of November '07 on Charter Ch. 18 and KDHX Ch. 21. Check it out on the video page!
In January of '08, Kristen played live on KCLC The Wood's radio show Bones Headphones. The interview, four live performances, and tracks from her CD took up the whole hour, and it was a blast!
I hope you can come see me play!
