Bringing The Blues

Sue Foley, an Ottawa-born blues guitarist and singer-songwriter will take the stage for the second year in a row at the Blue Feather Music Festival

To boil it down, Sue Foley is a blues guitar player. She’s a lot more than that as well, but to distill her long-storied career into a simple description isn’t easy. The Ottawa-originated, Austin-Texas-based musician has released over a dozen albums and spent more than 30 years touring, but nothing ever seems to be too much, or even enough for her.

“I’m basically a blues artist and I’ve had a long career already,” she says. “I don’t know what else to say.”

There is a lot more to say, though. While Foley typically outs with a three-piece electric band, her latest album, 2024’s One Guitar Woman, is a solo record, featuring just herself and her acoustic guitar. It received some high accolades, including Grammy and Juno Award Nominations, and helped bring to public light Foley’s passion for women guitar players, a topic about which she’s done extensive research—parts of which involve her musicology PhD and an upcoming book of interview compilations called Guitar Women. Foley always has lots of projects on the go, but many of them are in the works for years before anyone even knows about them.

“I’ve got all these big projects and it looks like I’m super productive, but what’s been happening is that I’ve slowly been hacking away at things for years, learning guitar styles and and learning about artists and doing interviews for a book, and doing this and doing that, and slowly you’re hacking away at this giant mountain that feels completely insurmountable; then all of a sudden, you’re done,” she says. “It’s going to look like I work like a dog, and I kind of do, but it’s been slow and steady, and that’s been the real trick for me.”

What keeps Foley going after all these years is a confidence that her best work is yet to come, and she says blues is a genre where artists can age gracefully, improving with time. You can grow into the blues with age, as the wisdom, skill and knowledge that make blues artists great often comes with experience and time. 

“That’s the great thing about being an artist or a musician,” she says. “No matter how good you get, you’re always looking, or you should be—looking forward to the next level—so for me it’s just always been about getting better at my craft.”

Though she’s lived in Texas for decades and has embraced the music scene down there, Foley will always be a Canadian artist, and does a good portion of her touring north of the border. The home market has always been important to her and she’s performed in Alberta, the East Coast and Ontario, as recently as this summer, and has retained a large fanbase up north over the years as well.

“Even in the U.S., when people introduce me, they always say I’m from Canada,” she says. “It’s still a big part of my identity. I just chose to settle in the U.S. for access to a bigger market.”

Last year was Foley’s first time visiting and performing in the Yukon when she took the Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) stage for the Blue Feather Music Festival. She’ll be back for this year’s edition, which runs Nov. 7 to 8 at the YAC.

“It’s a great festival, and Gary [Bailie], who runs it, is a soulful, amazing guy and I would consider him a pillar of that community,” Foley says. “He taught us so much about the culture of the Yukon and exposed us to some of the most natural beauty of this amazing place. We’re excited to come back.”

Bailie knew of Foley and scouted her group last year and invited them to play the festival, and even then he had told Foley that he’d like to have her back. Luckily, her schedule this year allowed her to make the trek up once again. Last year, they stayed an extra day to explore and go dog sledding, and the choice to return was a no-brainer.

“I’m sure [Yukoners] are excited every year when the festival plays again because it brings a lot of music to the community, and a lot of new musicians,” Foley says. “I just thought it was super warm and inviting.”

Though Foley thinks she hardly needs to convince music-loving Yukoners to come out to this year’s festival, she hopes to see some familiar and new faces and to explore the territory some more.

“If people need encouragement, just come out and listen to the music and be with people and share art and creativity,” she says. “Gary is such an amazing man, with such a huge heart, and truly loves his community, and it just shines forth. I encourage everybody up there to go, and I’d be surprised if they didn’t … I mean, why wouldn’t you?

“We’re looking forward to the show,” says Foley. “We love coming up there, and I can’t believe it’s already on the horizon.”
Visit suefoley.com to keep up with Sue Foley’s music, tour dates and writing. And visit bluefeathermusic.ca to learn more about the Blue Feather Music Festival, see the lineup and buy tickets.