By ERIC SCHELKOPF
On her new album, "One Guitar Woman," acclaimed blues guitarist and singer Sue Foley pays homage to the female pioneers of guitar who continue to influence her own music.
Those used to hearing Foley play her pink paisley Fender Telecaster will hear a different side of her as she dons a nylon string acoustic guitar for the album. Foley will play a few songs from the album – along with playing with a full band – when she performs April 17 at SPACE, 1245 Chicago Avenue, Evanston.
Also on the bill is Nikki O'Neill. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are available at evanstonspace.com.
I had the chance to talk to Foley about the new album.
Q – Great talking to you again. We last spoke in 2022 about your album “Pinky’s Blues.” And now you have a new album out, “One Guitar Woman.”
What made you want to make this album and was it a dream project of yours?
I've been working on a huge sort of volume on women and guitars and it's got a lot of offshoots. It really started out when I was a kid and I wanted to be a guitar player.
I was influenced by my older brothers and my dad, who all played guitar. When I include someone like Charo in this volume of music, she's the first woman I ever saw play guitar.
She has just kind of been with me this whole time. And these women pioneers, I just really wanted to pay tribute to them.
Memphis Minnie is another one who has been with me my whole career as a blues artist. When I was starting out as not just a guitar player, but as a blues guitar player, I came to realize Memphis Minnie had been doing it in the 1930s and 1940s.
That's kind of what this project is about.
Q – The first single is “Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie," a song by Elizabeth Cotten. I understand that is one of your favorite songs to play on guitar.
Her guitar style is really fun to play as a guitar player. It's not easy to learn because it's a finger picking style.
It's technically challenging, but once you get it, it's really fun to play because you can do it by yourself. And it sounds like a full band. All these parts are going in tandem, the rhythm and the melody.
It's just very rewarding to learn and to play. And it's kind of beautiful music, too.
Q – You must have been pretty happy with how the song turned out to pick it as your first single.
Yeah, I'm really happy with all the stuff on this album. And the feedback has been really positive.
I'm really thrilled. I'm not just thrilled because people are receiving it well.
I'm thrilled because I was execute it all. It took me a lot of years to learn all these guitar styles.
Q – Of course, you decided to play all the songs on a nylon string acoustic guitar. What made you want to do that and was it hard making the transition from a Fender Telecaster to an acoustic guitar?
It actually wasn't. I've been playing a nylon string guitar for a couple of decades now.
And the reason I play a Spanish guitar – it's a flamenco guitar – is because of Charo. So this all does date back to early female influences.
And I think a flamenco guitar is a really versatile guitar. First of all, it's beautiful sounding.
I just wanted to demonstrate the versatility of that kind of guitar. And you can use those techniques on a Telecaster.
They're very compatible.
Q – How did you go about choosing what women to feature on the album or what songs to feature on “One Guitar Woman”?
The songs I picked resonate with me personally. As a longtime interpreter of blues music, I've always found that the lyrical content you sing about needs to be honest.
So it's got to be something that you can relate to. I can't sing about working on the railroad or being in prison, you know.
And as far as the women who are featured, I really picked, I think, some of the preeminent pioneers of women in guitar.
Q – What were you looking to bring to the songs on the album? How did you go about interpreting what you wanted to bring to these songs?
I wanted to bring my own story, at least have some kind of cross narrative somehow to make their story my story in a way.
It's definitely biographical/autobiographical.
Q – Are you hoping to bring a new audience to some of these artists? Perhaps some of the people listening to the album are not familiar with them.
Absolutely. I think that's what it's all about.
That's why I do this. Because people might not know who Memphis Minnie is, for example.
It's to keep their memory alive. These are important figures.
We're walking in their footsteps, literally. I walk in Memphis Minnie's footsteps.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe has gotten a lot more notoriety in the last 10 years. Now she's pretty well known.
And she was a phenomenal guitar player. It just goes to show you that there's been female guitarists the whole time.
They're technically proficient. It's not just a male dominated culture.
There's a whole rich history of female guitarists. There's just not as many of them and that's because women's roles were more dictated to being in the home back then.
Q – Of course, you've made your own impression on the music scene. You have won the Blues Music Award for Traditional Female Artist of the Year three consecutive times. Can you see yourself someday being honored like this by an artist in the future?
That would be interesting. The funny thing is, the only woman on this record that's still alive is Charo.
So if somebody did do something like that, I probably wouldn't be alive to know about it. Maybe I would be.
But it's interesting. Especially with Memphis Minnie.
I don't think she had any idea what kind of impact she had. She died in obscurity.
And she has had such a huge impact.
It's a strange tragedy and victory all at the same time.
Q – I guess that goes to show you that you can still make your mark even though physically, you might not be here any more.
I think that's why we do art. I think it's kind of a way to transcend our lifespan, because we know we're only going to be here physically for a certain amount of time.
Q – You said you have been getting good feedback about the new album.
Yeah, we're getting really good feedback. Because it's just me on the album, it's so kind of intimate.
It's almost like I'm just sitting there with you in your kitchen or wherever. In our world right now where everything is so overblown and we've got so much coming at us, I really wanted to do something that was just immediate and kind of simple and just stripped down.
And if you come see me live, it's going to sound exactly like that. There's no bells and whistles, there's no tricks.
Q – During your show at SPACE, will you be playing a lot from this album?
I'll be playing a portion of this album, but I'll also have my band with me. We'll be doing both, electric and acoustic.
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