Foley

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…