Juno-nominated blues artist opening for ZZ Top, Cheap Trick

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on April 20, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Sue Foley won’t have much time to make an impression when she opens for Cheap Trick and ZZ Top Wednesday April 27 at the Enmax Centre but the Queen of Texas Blues has already done that time and time again.
Foley, the Canadian blues virtuoso who now calls Austin, Texas home, is back in Canada with pandemic restrictions lifted and she’s ready to perform for old fans and some new ones.
Tickets for the show range between $85 and $106 and are available at the Ticket Centre locations.
Foley, known for her signature pink paisley Fender Telecaster guitar – she actually has three but one doesn’t go on the road – is riding high with a new album “Pinky’s Blues” named after that guitar.
The new album, released on Stony Plain Records, features both covers and originals and in her brief set, Lethbridge blues fans will get a sampling of it which has earned Foley a Juno nomination for blues album of the year.
That album has also earned three nominations at the 43rd Blues Music Awards in Memphis for album of the year, traditional blues album and traditional blues female artist. It’s also up for four Maple Blues awards.
The Lethbridge show is one of three she’s playing with the two American headliners in Canada. After she plays Saskatoon on April 29, she heads to Memphis, Tennessee for the Beale Street Music Festival before heading overeats to Switzerland and Germany in May.
“It feels great to be touring here again,” said Foley in a telephone interview on Easter Monday.
“I haven’t been here for three years,” said Foley, who has used her time in Canada to catch up with members of her family who she spent Easter with.
“We missed each other; it’s nice to see everyone.”
In her career, Foley has performed with some of the biggest names in blues, among them Billy Gibbons who guested on her album the “Ice Queen.”
“We’ve done some shows together in Austin so I know him a little bit and he’s a real generous person. I’m really stoked to be out with Cheap Trick and ZZ Top. It’s wild,” said Foley.
With the pandemic lifting “I think people are really enthusiastic about coming out and excited. I think it’s kind of like a veil has lifted,” said Foley.
Her show here will be an electric one and it will be one featuring plenty of “loud guitar and high energy,” she promises fans.
Response to her album “has been great,” she said.
“It’s doing really well. It’s been really well received. It was on the top of the Canadian roots music report for almost 16 weeks straight,” added Foley.
“Pinky’s Blues” was recorded live off the floor in 2020 over the course of about three days with no overdubs in one room. The label wanted to delay its release, she said, because it wanted Foley to be able to do tour dates around it. So the album didn’t come out until last year.
“It made sense to do that and it’s all worked out really well,” said Foley.

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