Yesterday singular folksinger and onetime Chicagoan Josephine Foster released a new album called Blood Rushing (Fire). These days Foster lives in Cádiz, Spain, with her partner, guitarist Victor Herrero, but to make the new album she returned to her native Colorado, where she and Herrero were joined by Paz Lenchantin (the Entrance Band), Ben Trimble, and Heather Troste (A Hawk and a Hacksaw). I’m unhappy to admit that the only song I’ve heard from the album is today’s 12 O’Clock Track, but after listening to it obsessively yesterday, I made sure there’d be a copy of the whole record in the mail ASAP. Foster has a remarkable voice, but it’s not for everyone. She opens the song in her delicate default setting—a kind of mannered folk style that reminds me of late-60s/early-70s British artists such as Shirley Collins, Anne Briggs, and Bridget St. John. At first she’s backed by sparse acoustic-guitar strumming, but the song gains depth, beauty, and excitement as it progresses, adding pretty harmony vocals, a jazzy guitar solo, and gorgeous violin filigree. Toward the end Foster breaks into operatic flourishes—she abandoned her training to be an opera singer many years ago, but she’s never left behind what she learned.