About Bruce

Bruce Foulke began his musical journey way back in the early 1960’s where, as a young fourteen-year-old, he performed in such venues as the New York World’s Fair and the famed Catskill Mountain resorts.  Eventually ending up in college at the University of Rhode Island Bruce began a career in songwriting and solo performing on 12-string guitar.

In 1973 Bruce, Ron Sanfilippo, a URI alumnus and pianist who was attending The Berklee College of Jazz, and Paul Mason, a drummer, formed a band that eventually became Head of The Meadow (named after the beach where Bruce spent his summers). Head of the Meadow was to become the vehicle for Bruce’s passion for singing, guitar playing and composing. The band performed all over the southeastern New England region including the famed Jacks nightclub in Cambridge, where the band played regularly.

In 1985, Bruce and Richard Waterman founded North Star Records in Providence, Rhode Island; it was later renamed North Star Music where he served Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. North Star was one of the very first independent labels in New England and released hundreds of albums. Bruce was to eventually move to a music producer role within the company, beginning with co-producing the second release of North Star’s principal artist Cheryl Wheeler titled Half a Book.

As a guitarist and producer, Bruce recorded his first album as a solo artist, Eveningtide, for North Star. This album marked the beginning of a career of music produced and performed under Bruce’s company, The Pamet River Company. He would go on to produce albums with world-renown mandolinist David Grisman, Blues legend Duke Robillard, classical pianist Judith Lynn Stillman and Jacqueline Schwab (of the many Ken Burn’s films including The Civil War). Nearly sixty recordings have been produced/performed by Bruce since his early days with North Star Records.

In 1994, Bruce was brought on by the television production company Northstar Entertainment (no relation to North Star Records) to be the Music Supervisor for a children’s PBS show called The Reppies. The show went on to earn Bruce an Emmy Award nomination for Music and share an Emmy Award for the production.