Sue Foley first picked up a guitar at 13 in her native Canada, and by 20, she was already touring internationally. Just a year later, she took her signature guitar, “Pinky,” and relocated to the blues hub of Austin, Texas.
Now, after years of relentless touring and dedication, Foley has reached a career milestone—earning her first Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album. One Guitar Woman is a heartfelt tribute to female guitarists, celebrating both blues pioneers and artists from other genres, including flamenco, classical, and the folk fingerpicking style known as the “Carter Scratch,” popularized by Maybelle Carter.
“This didn’t happen overnight,” Foley shared. “Honestly, it’s been a lifetime of studying the guitar. Some of these techniques have taken years to master. Piedmont folk fingerpicking, like Elizabeth Cotten’s style, is quite complex. You just keep chipping away at it until it becomes natural. Flamenco, for example—I started working on that decades ago.”
One of the standout tracks on the album is Cotten’s Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie. The record also pays homage to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Memphis Minnie, Ida Presti, Lydia Mendoza, Geeshie Wiley, Charo, and Elvie Thomas, among others. With stripped-down arrangements performed on a nylon-string flamenco guitar, the album carries a timeless quality, highlighting Foley’s exceptional vocal and guitar skills. Her artistry has already earned her four consecutive Blues Music Awards for Traditional Blues Female.
Fans can catch Foley live at two upcoming shows. She will headline the South Orange International Blues Festival’s Winter edition at SOPAC on February 7, followed by a performance at Iridium in New York on February 8. The first half of each show will feature solo acoustic renditions from One Guitar Woman, along with stories about the female guitar legends she honors. The second half will turn up the energy as Foley and her band dive into electric blues.
This is a rare opportunity to experience a world-class blues artist at the top of her game.
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