Foley

The late singer and songwriter Blaze Foley is almost unheard of outside of the circles of music fans who follow that scene closely. For many Austin musicians, he was a crazy saint, an iconoclast who was banned from virtually every bar in town, but whose songs are deeply admired and whose persona was singular – he didn't give a good god damn what anybody thought of him. He has been immortalized in Lucinda Williams' beautiful "Drunken Angel" and songwriter-guitarist Gurf Morlix, who played with him, lovingly mastered a record they made together in the late '70s which was released in 2006 as Blaze Foley & the Beaver Valley Boys. Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Kings of Leon, Lyle Lovett, and John Prine, among others, have recorded his songs. He's been exploited on a few compilations that have come out over the years with awful post-production work that he would never have agreed to. Fat Possum deepens the legend further without soiling the artist in the process. The Dawg Years is a collection of 20 Foley songs, recorded when his moniker was Deputy Dawg.

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.

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.

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.

'Roots’ is an exploration of the music written by Black composers and inspired by Black culture. A homage to the pioneering musicians who paved the way for Randall and his generation. Looking to the future with a specially commissioned piece by young Black composer Xavier Dubois Foley. World premiere recordings of music by Florence Price that was rescued from an abandoned house over half a century after her death. The Perlman protégé celebrates his own journey and shows young people that music can inspire regardless of background.