Some musicians fall into the blues.
Sue Foley had a calling.
It spoke to my soul, my spirit, the Canadian-born Austinite said last month during a phone call to talk about headlining 做厙勛圖s 2025 Blues Heritage Festival on Saturday, Nov. 15. A lot of people find blues and or it finds them. They just become lifelong. Its like a calling, you know; its like being called to something so profound.
Austin-based blues guitarist Sue Foley headlines the 2025 Blues Heritage Festival at Kennedy Park on Saturday, Nov. 15.
Foley was 15 when she saw Chicago bluesman James Cotton playing in her native Ottawa. She and her friends had snuck into the club after reading about him in the local newspaper.
But something on a near spiritual level happened to Foley at that show. While some people see blues as sad or depressing, Foley came away elated.
It was just so profound and so intense and so powerful that I had to take it on, you know, I had to follow it, the 57-year-old Grammy-nominated, Juno Award-winning blues guitarist recalled.
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Foley took guitar lessons from a really good guitar player in Ottawa when she was 16, then started playing in clubs with other artists and studied records to learn the nuances of the blues.
At 19, she left Ottawa for Austin, Texas, where she found herself one of the very few female blues guitarists.
I was always hyper aware that I was female in the guitar world, she said. I came up at a time when there really wasnt that many. .... Now girls are all over the place shredding guitars and its really not a thing for this generation.
Hundreds turned out for last years Southern Arizona Blues Heritage Festival at Kennedy Park. The festival returns Saturday, Nov. 15, with headliner Sue Foley.
Since releasing her 1992 debut album Young Girl Blues, Foley has recorded more than a dozen albums, including her 2024 Grammy-nominated One Guitar Woman, A Tribute to the Female Pioneers of Guitar.
On the album, she pays homage to the women on whose shoulders she stands, including country singer Maybelle Carter, French classical guitarist Ida Presti, Tennessee blues legend Memphis Minnie, Tejano great Lydia Mendoza and the seminal gospel artist Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who was one of the first to bring the electric guitar to gospel.
Its different styles of music, and these are pioneering women guitar players, Foley said. I even tackle a classical piece and a Spanish piece. Its pretty diverse, but really interesting artists.
The album was born out of Foleys 2020 doctoral degree research; during the pandemic lockup, Foley had started her PhD in musicology from York University in Toronto. She graduated in June.
Foley expanded on her dissertation research for Guitar Women: Life Lessons from Forty Six-String Heroines, which will be published by Sutherland House early next year.
Foleys appearance at the 做厙勛圖 blues festival is her first here in at least 30 years, she said.
Truth be told, shes not entirely sure shes ever played 做厙勛圖.
Im excited to come to 做厙勛圖 because I hear 做厙勛圖 is really cool, said Foley, who is performing with her full band.
She might slip in a song off of One Guitar Woman, but expect the bulk of her show to be the high-energy, blistering Texas-style guitar blues that earned her a Juno Canadas equivalent to the Grammy lifetime achievement award and the Blues Foundations prestigious Koko Taylor Award for best contemporary female blues artist five consecutive years from 2020-25; no award was given in 2021 because of the pandemic.
Foley heads a lineup that includes 做厙勛圖 blues artists Garrett James and the Wanderers, the Nico Barberan Band, The Xcelerators and Arizona Blues Hall of Famer Heather Lil Mama Hardy and her Blues Band.
Phoenixs high-energy Big Daddy D and the Dynamites open the midafternoon set, followed by Northern Arizonas Levi Platero Band, bringing their unique style of Navajo Nation blues. Foley and her band take the stage at 5:30 p.m.
Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Bluesky @Starburch
Cathalena E. Burch
Reporter
