{"id":181545,"date":"2024-11-11T13:14:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T18:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/rwddev\/sue-foley-shines-a-light-on-the-early-women-of-guitar-at-the-algoquin\/"},"modified":"2024-11-11T13:14:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T18:14:00","slug":"sue-foley-shines-a-light-on-the-early-women-of-guitar-at-the-algoquin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/sue-foley-shines-a-light-on-the-early-women-of-guitar-at-the-algoquin\/","title":{"rendered":"Sue Foley shines a light on the early women of guitar at the Algonquin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Huntsville Blues fans and guitar aficionados alike will be thrilled at the announcement of the Sue Foley \u201cOne Guitar Woman\u201d show presented by the Huntsville Festival of the Arts at Algonquin Theatre, Thursday, November 21, 2024, starting at 7:30 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we’re in Huntsville, we’re doing a solo show and a band show,\u201d Foley told Doppler in a recent interview. \u201cSo, people are going to get the full spectrum of everything that we do. I start out solo, I do a set, just dedicated to the female pioneers of guitar, the One Guitar Woman album, and then I switch gears, and I bring the band on, and we rock it! It’s just a trio, but we’re a big trio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018One Guitar Woman,\u2019 Foley\u2019s fifteenth released album, has been nominated, most deservedly, for the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. Over her long, successful career, Sue Foley has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Lifetime Achievement\/Blues with a Feeling Award at the 2024 Maple Blues Awards and innumerable accolades for her fiery brand of Texas blues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/suefoley.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Ottawa, Sue became a professional guitarist, songwriter, and band leader in the late 1980s, with extensive Canadian tours. By age 21, she had moved to Austin, Texas, recording for Antone’s, the blues label and historic nightclub. Throughout her decades-long life in music, she has shared the stage with countless notable Blues legends, from B.B. King to Billy Gibbons. She is the only female member of the renowned Jungle Show, which features Gibbons (leader of ZZTop), Jimmie Vaughan (brother of Stevie Ray Vaughn), and Hammond B3 organ wizard Mike Flanigin, with drummer Chris \u2018Whipper\u2019Layton (one of the founding members of Double Trouble with Stevie Ray Vaughn).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foley, is not only a highly respected blues guitarist, but a praised and admired singer, which she commandingly displays in her stunning interpretations and songs choices on \u2018One Guitar Woman\u2019, – a tribute to the pioneering women of guitar<\/em>.  The album and her show feature Foley alone, with her classical guitar, expounding and plumbing the depths of some of the genre\u2019s early and recognized genius female blues songwriters and phenomenal guitar players from Elizabeth Cotton to Memphis Minnie and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt features a lot of different guitar styles, but it’s all played on solo acoustic on a flamenco guitar,\u201d Foley explains. \u201cI’ve been studying the work of women guitar players my whole career; I’ve been kind of interested in the concept. I’m working on a book about women guitar players, and that’s been ongoing for a number of years. And, then, this is sort of an offshoot from that. I’ve just always been curious about the pioneers – women who played really early on. I just love their music so much, and I wanted to pay tribute to people like Elizabeth Cotton, Memphis Minnie, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and all the trailblazing women of guitar. I just think it’s important to shine a light on their accomplishments and celebrate them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just gets audiences really excited. They learn a lot, especially women, because I think with women a lot of times women don’t think they’re in the guitar story.\u201d Between songs, Foley shares anecdotes and some of the insights she\u2019s gathered from years of research and reading about the challenges that women faced presenting their music in a predominately male occupation. Particularly exciting is Foley\u2019s grasp and command of the stylistic nuances and subtle intricacies these women introduced into music and the genre, and into the guitar vocabulary. Foley covers several differing approaches to guitar playing, a feat unto itself, which clearly showcases her extensive technical and ascetic prowess.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth Cotten, (1893-1987), famous for her songs \u201cFreight Train\u201d and \u201cShake Sugaree,\u201d learned to play left-handed on a guitar strung for a right-handed player, but she played it upside down, which gave her a unique facility to play the bass line with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her album \u2018Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar\u2019 (1958), was deemed as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and placed into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. Her guitar playing still inspires blues artists to this date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memphis Minnie, the stage name for Lizzie Douglas (1897\u20131973), recorded around 200 songs during her three-decade career, including the legendary anthem “When the Levee Breaks,” a country blues song recorded in 1929 about the turmoil caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was always curious about the kind of character you’d have to be to branch into something that would be, you know, you’re all alone; basically, you’re just doing it. And they have this drive to go forth into uncharted territory. It’s about exploration, accomplishment, adventure in their lives, and just the type of people they were: courageous, adventurous, creative, and talented. I just get excited talking about them. I love telling the stories about them. They’re not household names, a lot of them, that people don’t know. But when they learn, they’re very excited,\u201d elaborates Foley about the inspiration and meaning of the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For tickets follow the link below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SUE FOLEY: ONE GUITAR WOMAN<\/a><\/blockquote>