In matters of musical creativity, Jeffrey Dean Foster is a patient man. It's good that he's male, as he is not prone to creating and pushing out anything in nine months.

"For me, just getting an album out is a benchmark," Foster said during an interview last week. "I must have the opposite of attention-deficit disorder." It took Foster five years to make Million Star Hotel, his second full-length album in more than 20 years of recording and performing. The finished disc is well worth the wait. It is Foster's masterpiece, a summation of influences and the culmination of a long musical journey. The disc can compete with any album by anybody at any level - it is that good. And it is a true album, a 65-minute sojourn in song that largely bucks the demands of an iPod Generation geared to disposable songs. "There are individual songs that I think are catchy enough to stand on their own, but it is made to be heard as an album," Foster said. "It's no longer than Exile on Main Street, or London Calling or Tusk, all albums that I love and that still have a huge influence on me.

"I'm not comparing Million Star Hotel to those albums - but I do think it's a good disc. It is what I set out to do - and I definitely didn't jump the gun." Foster laughed. "It's definitely not for people with short attention spans. (Producer and musician) Don Dixon called me up and asked me if I realized that my album is longer than Meet The Beatles and Neil Young's Harvest combined." Million Star Hotel - the title a term for being homeless, for not having a roof over one's head - will be released Saturday at a show at The Werehouse by Foster and his band, The Birds of Prey. The show is also a benefit for AIDS Care Service. Admission is by a donation of cash, valid phone cards, blankets or warm winter clothing. A silent auction of art and rock memorabilia will also be held.

Taking five years to make an album was not a matter of creative obsession or insecurity. Rather, Foster, a central part of the Winston-Salem music scene since the mid-1980s, works on his timetable and by his own standards. He doesn't make music to fit trends. He makes music because he loves music, and he believes, with all his heart, that he has something valid to contribute to the greater good. If he is to release a new album, it has to represent who he is and what he believes. "I want to make music that is not tied to any specific time," Foster said. "The albums I like the most sound timeless, and I guess I want to make albums that I would like if I were just to hear them." Foster is a songwriter of depth who has led a number of popular bands. Foster's first band, The Right Profile, was signed and dropped by Arista Records. The Carneys - which included future members of D Generation and John Mellencamp's band - was a great live band that made some superb recordings, but no album ever emerged. Then came The Pinetops, another fine band that released one album, Above Ground and Vertical (now out of print) that was well received in the national and international marketplaces. Foster eventually formed a new band, The Birds of Prey, and released a largely live solo EP, The Leaves Turn Upside Down, a raw but entertaining disc that is as close as Foster has ever come to making a quick album. "It really kinda just drifted out," Foster said. "Dixon convinced me that it would only enhance my reputation as a weirdo."

Foster took his time methodically assembling Million Star Hotel. He was not signed to a music label. Labels liked and expressed interest in the project, but changes in an uncertain music industry and hard economic times kept Foster unsigned. The years of trials and tribulations that accompanied the making of Million Star Hotel helped put it into perspective. "I stopped thinking about fame and fortune long ago," Foster said. "I wouldn't know how to technically make a 'new' album. I don't even like the way most of them sound. So by not having a label, it actually freed me to think about making an album that I liked without having to make it fit anybody else's niche.

"I had confidence. I just had no confidence in the music business." Although it's a solo album, Million Star Hotel represents the combined work of many people. Musicians include Foster's band, along with major contributions from Dixon, Mitch Easter, Lynn Blakey, John Pfiffner and Chris Phillips, among others. Adding to the disc's magic is its blend of originality and influences. It's a heady and atmospheric album, equal parts earth and sky, prone to dramatic shifts in dynamics. One minute it rocks, the next it is a calming balm for shattered souls. It's easy to hear influences - from Lindsey Buckingham, Jeff Lynne and Bruce Springsteen to Wings, Neil Young and The New York Dolls, with a slight nod to such contemporary bands as Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips. Foster makes such overtures intentional. "They sound good and are sort of mileposts for the listener," he said.

"They are familiar sounds along the way.

"It all sounds new enough for me. It doesn't sound like it belongs in a museum. At the same time, it does sound ... different." Movement, sky and darkness are recurring themes, all giving the album a sense of search, escape and discovery. "That's true," Foster said. "There is a certain spiritual quest about the disc. It seems to be about the search for peace of mind, and the need within people to get back to that in a more complicated world."

He laughed. "Or they could be just rock songs. It's up to you."