Sue Foley

The cover's cutout silhouette of these guitar-slinging soul/blues women is a succinct visual overview of the rather ambiguous contents within. Recorded in preparation for 2007's Blues Caravan tour featuring journeywomen singer/songwriters Sue Foley and Deborah Coleman along with the comparatively fresh-faced Roxanne Potvin (whose first widely distributed set was released earlier the same year), the disc seems more like a respectable concert souvenir than an actual collaborative affair. The 11 tracks break down into three solo cuts from each participant, one shared and joyous effort on the closing cover of a Chess oldie, "In the Basement," and a crackling instrumental dominated by Foley's always impressive guitar. There are many fine moments here, especially as Coleman lays into an easy funk groove on James Brown's "Talking Loud" and on Potvin's emotionally charged ballad "Strong Enough to Hold You".

Sue Foley pretty much sticks to her guns on New Used Car – her tenth album and second for Germany's Ruf Records – resisting the urge to go pure pop and turning out instead another set of blues-inflected roots rock originals that prominently feature her laser-guided electric guitar leads. This is certainly good news, and things get off to a great start with the spunky opener and title tune "New Used Car," which cooks along on Foley's guitar and sharp lyrics that are fully aware that a car is just a metaphor for getting where you want to go and that the back seat is full of all the baggage a life brings.

Three time Blues Foundation Traditional Female Artist award winner, Sue Foley's new album One Guitar Woman is a heartfelt tribute to the female pioneers of the guitar - including Memphis Minnie, Lydia Mendoza, Maybelle Carter, Ida Presti, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The album showcases the dexterity of Foley's acoustic nylon string guitar skills as she expands on her blues playing into other genres like Piedmont fingerpicking, traditional country, flamenco and classical. One Guitar Woman is devoted to the female pioneers of guitar - to celebrate women of independent spirit, vision, passion, and accomplishment. "From the time I decided to be a professional guitar player, I've always looked for female role models. These are the women who were expressing themselves through the instrument as far back as the 1920's, at the inception of radio and recorded music. They are the trailblazers and visionaries whose footsteps I walk in," says Foley.

Recorded live at the legendary Continental Club in Austin, Texas. This electrifying album captures all of the grit, sweat and devastating guitar playing that has propelled Sue Foley to the top of the Blues world in 2023. Here, Sue reaches back and delivers first-ever live recordings of some of her early hits, deep covers, and some surprises too! First arriving in Austin in 1991 at the urging of nightclub impresario Clifford Antone, it's in that era of Austin where she cut her teeth amongst infamous Texas guitar slingers like Albert Collins and The Vaughan Brothers. It's all come down to this one hot Friday night in Austin, playing to a packed club. It's real. And it's tough as nails. That's Sue at the top of her game. This past May, Foley was awarded the Blues Music Award for Traditional Blues Female Artist (Koko Taylor Award) in Memphis TN - an award she also won in 2022 and 2020.

This highly touted vocalist/guitarist originally hails from Ottawa, Canada, although her home base shifted to Austin, Texas, when she signed with Antone's Records and cut her debut set, Young Girl Blues, in 1992 (an encore, Without a Warning, quickly followed). Foley's wicked lead guitar makes her a rarity among blueswomen. When she was a child in Ottawa, Foley listened to rock & roll and blues-rock groups like the Rolling Stones. Although these bands sowed the seeds of her affection for the blues, her love for the music didn't blossom until she witnessed James Cotton in concert when she was 15 years old. Cotton inspired Foley to pick up the electric guitar. During her late teens and early twenties, she jammed with local Ottawa bar bands. She didn't form her own group until she moved to Vancouver in the mid-'80s.

Anyone who has spent time listening to Canada-born, Austin-based guitar slinger Sue Foley knows "Pinky" is her signature paisley-print pink Fender Telecaster. Pinky's Blues is her second offering for Stony Plain. Foley and her band – bassist Jon Penner, drummer Chris Layton (of Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble fame), and Hammond B-3 organist, producer Mike Flanigin – got together with engineer Chris Bell over three days in a San Marcos, Texas studio and cut these 12 tracks live on the floor. Foley's focus is the Texas blues and the artists who embody them in a set of covers and originals. She captures the Lone Star blues styles with raw energy, passion, and stellar musicianship.

There aren't many - there may not be any - contemporary male/female co-billed couples who both sing and contribute original songs, thus making the partnership an equal dynamic. Roots musicians Peter Karp and Sue Foley released their successful He Said, She Said song cycle in 2010, a challenging conceptual piece that examined, sometimes with excruciating intimacy, the beginnings of their professional and personal relationship in songs derived from written correspondence they sent each other over a several-years-long courtship. It was an audacious start to the duo's joint recorded career and one that set the bar pretty high. Two years and thousands of road miles later, it's encouraging to find that the couple has not only withstood the pressures of romantically linked touring musicians but has thrived creatively…

This Ottawa-based blues guitarist and singer has been under-appreciated on the Canadian scene, though she did win a Juno in 2001 for Love Coming Down. She has always been held in high regard in Austin, TX though. She was based there in the '90s, recording for the famed Antone's label, and she returned to the Lone Star state to record this sparkling new album.