Music Preview: Canada's Sue Foley can play the blues with any of the boys

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Friday, March 16, 2001
by Scott Mervis, Weekend Editor, Post-Gazette

On the list of young Canadian female blues guitarists who can play like an old black guy, Sue Foley would have to rank pretty high up there.

The native of Ottawa, who started recording for the Austin label Antone's back in 1991, has a formidable set of guitar chops and a sultry voice that she isn't afraid to let fly.

The life of a blueswoman didn't seem like the path that her life was going to take when Foley bought her first Clash album, but one thing kept leading to another.

"I started playing at 13," Foley says. "I had gotten into punk, then early British Invasion and then I got into the blues. The Clash to early Stones to Muddy Waters, that's the route I took."

Learning to play the blues with any credibility obviously requires a certain level of obsession, of which Foley had. She says some people, notably her parents, were "perplexed" to see her cast aside the usual teen social stuff to focus on mastering an instrument and style that doesn't generally appeal to young girls.

"I was totally on the outskirts, so I didn't care about that," Foley says. "I didn't mind the learning thing [at school], but I didn't like what the other teens were into and I couldn't get into their popularity groups and contests. I stood on the outside and I had my guitar. As soon as I got into blues, I never thought about school again. I graduated, but I literally didn't care. I knew what I was going to do."

Foley's idea of homework was listening to every old blues record she could find. Surely, anyone who tells you their favorite guitarist is Earl Hooker -- cousin of John Lee Hooker -- has dug deep into the blues.

"I've literally studied everybody from Freddie King to B.B. King to T-Bone Walker to Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Muddy Waters, everyone on Chess records. I studied for years. I did my homework for a long time."

Foley started playing in the Ottawa blues scene when he she was 16 and found some supportive players to show her around the guitar. When it came to getting up there and jamming with the boys, Foley used the same thick skin that she had around the kids in school.

"I was so into it I was oblivious to anything that would hold me back," she says. "Literally, I didn't pay attention to it. I might have gotten a few snickers early on in my career. Maybe if I stood up on stage, there might have been a few people going, 'Oh, yeah, right.' They clammed up when I started playing."

In 1989, Foley caught the attention of Austin mover and shaker Clifford Antone, who says "I've never met a better musician than Sue Foley." He signed the singer-guitarist, brought her into the Austin club scene and released her first four records.

Now, she's back in Ottawa, where she returned to raise her 4-year-old son. Last year found her releasing a rocking set of career outtakes on Antone's, "Back to the Blues" -- including a cover of Dylan's "Positively Fourth Street" -- while also pushing forward with her second record for Shanachie. Written in the aftermath of a divorce, "Love Comin' Down" is a moody set that covers a lot of ground: primal rockabilly, Latin, soul, Texas roadhouse and songs that wouldn't sound out of place on a Lucinda Williams record.

"It's probably my first album that personified getting my own sound," she says. "Blues is the kind of music where you can't help but be derivative. Everything is derivative, but I think it takes a while to grow into the blues. I think 'Love Comin' Down' was a big step for me."

With her looks and talent, it seems only natural that a record label would want to put her out there as "the next Bonnie Raitt." When asked about it, Foley rips into the question like one of her guitar solos.

"No, I hope not. I think that would be impossible. Why would you want to be the next 'anybody' but yourself?"

Rephrasing that question to whether anyone has pushed her to cross over into the pop market, Foley responds, "Who knows? I didn't start for that reason. I don't think about it too much. I have a team of agents and management who would love to see more commercial success, but I just go along the way I go. If I write a pop song, it's because I just wrote it."