Sue Foley at the Capitol
Sean Arthur Joyce
Sue Foley—one of our greatest living female blues guitarists—turned in a five-star performance at Nelson’s Capitol Theatre the evening of September 28. She opened with a solo acoustic set on Spanish guitar, performing blues, country and flamenco selections from her Grammy-nominated One Guitar Woman (2024), followed by a hard-driving set with her three-piece electric combo. The album features performances by Foley of rare female, mostly blues artists, though some of the songs were written by (or attributed to) men, like “La Malagueña.”
Seated on a stool in the spotlight, Foley effortlessly filled the Capitol with just six strings, a beautifully clear voice and no fancy electronic tricks. Each song was introduced with a brief history of the artist based on her musical and biographical research. And while she admitted to some nervousness whenever she performs the challenging flamenco piece “La Malagueña,” she sailed through it with the utmost fluency and grace. The traditional Latin-American song has a long history but was popularized by guitarist and entertainer Charo, who appeared on American TV in the 1960s and ’70s on Laugh-In and The Tonight Show.
Foley opened with Elizabeth Cotton’s “Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie,” drawn from the Piedmont blues style of finger picking. She then played her tribute to Maybelle Carter—mother of June Carter Cash—“Maybelle’s Guitar,” a jaunty tune that makes intricate use of double-picking. Probably the most obscure song from One Guitar Woman was Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley’s “Last Kind Words Blues.” The pair recorded only six songs, including the iconic “Motherless Child Blues,” and then disappeared into history. The blues is replete with this kind of hard luck story—not just some songwriter’s fantasy but an actual lived tragedy, of potential barely glimpsed (but fortunately recorded) before it’s snuffed out.
Foley recalled growing up in Ottawa in a musical household with brothers who all played guitar and worshipped Hendrix and Jimmy Page. She loved blues greats like Muddy Waters but wondered: Where are the girls? That’s when she stumbled across on old Memphis Minnie record, and that was it—she knew this was her life path. “She was the female Robert Johnson,” says Foley in an interview on an Austin, Texas radio station. There is no film footage or other interview material of Memphis Minnie, yet another great blues talent who shuffled off into obscurity. Fortunately, she left a legacy of recorded material that has since inspired many more blues artists besides Foley. I was surprised to learn that the mighty Led Zeppelin recorded her with their stomping version of “When the Levee Breaks.” Foley’s choice for the concert from One Guitar Woman was “In My Girlish Days,” an older Minnie reflecting on her younger self.
After a short break, she returned with her band - a blues power trio whose rhythmic engine room features Jon Penner on bass and Texas boy, Chris Hunter on drums - kicking the energy into high gear from the first song. The rhythm section can make or break a band and this one is fantastic. Foley’s bassist, Jon Penner has been with her since high school days, so they’re locked into each other. Hunter showed us just how important a fine drummer is in carrying an audience through a show. Foley recalled their early forays into famous blues venue Antone’s blues club in Austin, Texas, now celebrating its 50th year. The city is pretty much Blues Central for the state. (Foley will be appearing on the legendary Austin City Limits this November.) She’s become something of a fixture on the Austin music scene but performs often in her native Canada.
She featured songs from her 2021 recording, Pinky’s Blues, a nod to her signature pink paisley Telecaster guitar. The title number, an instrumental, provides plenty of Foley’s dexterous firepower, making me wonder if the ghost of Roy Buchanan will finally have to give up his title as Master of the Telecaster. (Not before she can get the kind of slow blues honey-dripping tone out of her guitar that Roy does on “Drowning on Dry Land.” But I have no doubt she could do it.) “Hurricane Girl” from Pinky’s Blues is not only appropriate given the times but sounds like hit material, one of those iconic songs that always existed, somewhere.
Foley’s bell-clear vocals veer between the wounded innocent and strutting female power, a distinctive voice that sometimes sounds more country than blues. She paid tribute to another personal favourite, Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown with his instrumental, “Okie Dokie Stomp,” from Pinky’s Blues. The slow-burner “Say It’s Not So” brought down the tempo but allowed her to wring even more tone out of her Telecaster with the cascading effect of heavy reverb. The electric set featured material from her Live in Austin album—boogie blues of the hard - driving’ kind, including “Queen Bee,” “Hooked on Love,” and “Me and My Chauffeur Blues.”
The audience made their pleasure loudly clear from the start, causing Foley to joke more than once that the Nelson crowd should come with the band to the next gigs. They gave her a standing ovation that quickly convinced her to do an encore, with her version of Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street” and the title track from her 2018 album, Ice Queen. It was while she was touring that album that the Kootenay Blues Society first scooped her for a show at Finley’s Pub in Nelson. The one thing she seemed disappointed by was that there’s no dance floor in the Capitol. That was hint enough to fill the space in front of the stage with dancers. Foley struck a joyful chord in the Nelson audience, which included people from the Slocan Valley. The house was sold out—or nearly—and organizer Richard Metzner was visibly pleased with the turnout, saying it was probably the best yet for Kootenay Blues Society.
Turns out 2025 is a great time to be a blues woman, with highly original talents like Larkin Poe, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Ana Popovic, Samantha Fish, Carolyn Wonderland, Susan Tedeschi and of course blues-pop veteran Bonnie Raitt, all enjoying stellar careers. Foley is in this first rank—one to watch, but more importantly, listen to with ears hungry for joy in difficult times.
LINKS: Sue Foley website: www.suefoley.com
One Guitar Woman ordering from Stony Plain Records: https://stonyplainrecords.com/suefoley/