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The BiTS Interview: Sue Foley

“Pinky’s Blues”, the new Stony Plain Records album from award-winning blues guitarist/singer Sue Foley,
scored a trifecta of nominations at the recently announced nominees from the Blues Foundation for the 43rd
Blues Music Awards. Foley garnered nominations for “Album of the Year,” “Traditional Blues Album,”
and “Traditional Blues Female Artist.” Born in Canada, Sue is a long time resident in San Antonio, Texas,
from where she continues to travel the world, bringing her music to fans old and new. Affected as badly as
any by Covid 19, Sue is currently on tour in North America.

Ian McKenzie spoke to her at her home.

BiTS: Sue, please tell me something about your upbringing. How did you get into music in the first
place?

SF: I’m from a musical family. My dad plays guitar, and my three other brothers play guitar, so it
just kind of runs in the family. I’m the youngest of five kids and just ran with it.

BiTS: How did you find the blues?

SF: I found the blues primarily through the British invasion.

BiTS: What particular interest did you have in it?

SF: I just was drawn to it, I think because of the guitar thing but also
just because of the purity of it. It was after I saw my first live blues
show when I was 15—that was James Cotton—that I really got dedicated
to being a blues player, but I kind of had to see it live to know the
power of that music, I guess.

BiTS: I guess you played guitar all the way through school.
Did you have a band at that stage, or were you in a band?

SF: No, I didn’t get into a band. I was in a band at 17, so that
was the first band I was in when I was 17. It was a
traditional Chicago blues band in Ottawa.

BiTS: And you were playing guitar then?

SF: I was playing guitar. I started playing guitar at 13.

BiTS: Wow. Did you have lessons, or are you entirely
self-taught?

SF: My brother showed me some stuff early on, but
mostly I was self-taught. I was 16 and then I took
some blues lessons in Ottawa from a really good

player.

BiTS: You must have been deeply involved
because my understanding is that by the time you were 21, which is really not that long, you were
down in Austin.

SF: Yes. I was pretty driven. I was gigging at 16, and then I started my own band at 18, but we were

just playing all the time. We were on the road, so by the time I got to Austin at 21, I’d already