SPACE (Evanston)
Photo: Dave Specter
Sue Foley
When: Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024
Time: Doors 6 p.m./ Show 7 p.m.
Where: SPACE, Evanston
Tickets: HERE
ABOUT
Sue Foley interview by Linda Cain
“I’m a force of nature/ I’m a Hurricane Girl,” declares Sue Foley on the song “Hurricane Girl” from her award-winning 2021 Pinky’s Blues album. Truer words were seldom spoken. Or sung. Sue Foley has been a triple threat singer/songwriter/blues guitarist who has always taken the blues world by storm wherever she goes.
Pinky’s Blues features guest appearances by Jimmie Vaughan, Chris Layton and Mike Flanigan and earned her two 2022 Blues Music Awards (Traditional Blues Album and Traditional Female Artist/Koko Taylor Award).
Foley followed up the Pinky’s Blues momentum with Sue Foley Live in Austin, Vol. 1 in October 2023. Recorded during an exciting live show at the Continental Club, the album features eleven songs culled mostly from Sue’s vast catalog of 14 albums, going all the way back to her 1992 debut album Young Girl Blues.
Photo: Dianne Bruce Dunklau
And in early April 2024, Foley bestowed her fans with yet another, but very different, new release One Guitar Woman.
A native of Ottawa, Ontario who launched her U.S. career when she moved to Austin, TX at age 21, Foley began playing guitar in bands as a teenager in Canada. Now with 16 albums to her credit, and countless guest appearances on other artists’ albums, Foley continues to raise the bar of her artistry with each new project she takes on.
In May 2024, Foley was awarded the Blues Music Award for Traditional Blues Female Artist (Koko Taylor Award) in Memphis - an award she also won consecutively in 2023, 2022 and 2020. She was also recently honored with Guitarist of the Year and Blues Act of the Year at the 2023 Austin Music Awards, and Guitarist of the Year at the 2023 Maple Blues Awards. Her last album, Pinky’s Blues, took home Best Traditional Blues Album at the 2022 Blues Music Awards.
To that “triple threat” list we can now add: music historian/researcher plus acoustic guitarist extraordinaire of classical, country and Spanish styles.
For her new release Sue swaps out her signature pink paisley Telecaster (famously known as Pinky) for an acoustic nylon-string flamenco Blanca model crafted by master luthier Salvadore Castillo. She hasn’t settled on a name for her handmade prized guitar yet. But Sue says she sometimes calls her “Rosie,” due to the “beautiful rose inlay.”
One Guitar Woman spans a brief history of female solo guitar players whom she admires and has researched since 2001. Foley flies solo with no support from a backing band for the entire 12-track album that features her skillful and passionate interpretations of eight great acoustic guitar players of the past including: gutsy blues women Elizabeth Cotton, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Memphis Minnie, Geeshie Wiley and Elvie Thomas; country music matriarch Maybelle Carter, along with famed French classical guitarist Ida Presti and Latina string aces Lydia Mendoza and Charo.
Yes, that Charo of comedic blonde bombshell TV fame in the ‘60s-‘70s (more on that later).
“I am deeply inspired by the female pioneers of guitar who made timeless contributions to blues music and its history,” Foley explains on her website.
“These trailblazing women weren’t just playing the guitar, they were living it, pouring their souls into every note. Their stories are not just about music but about overcoming barriers, setting new standards and inspiring generations of players.”
Foley has been touring steadily since the pandemic lifted. She and her band will make a stop at SPACE in Evanston on Nov. 3, 2024 for a show that will include both electric and acoustic sets.
Click here for: TICKETS