Let’s face it. When it comes to routing for concert tours, Houston sometimes gets the short end of the stick. Some acts skip Houston in favor of Dallas or Austin, failing to make that trip just a bit further south to visit fans in H-Town. Part of the reason has to do with simple logistics – time, distance, money etc. But beyond that, there is a sneaking suspicion in some quarters that many musicians would rather play in Texas cities that are considered…well… hipper. But not Sue Foley.
On the contrary, Foley, who has maintained her position a queen on the Austin blues scene for years, possesses a soft spot for the Bayou City, where she will perform two shows on Thursday, February 26, at the Mucky Duck. “It may be my favorite live music town, believe it or not,” Foley says via Zoom. “We go a lot of places, but man, we love Houston. Love Houston!”
Foley’s upcoming local engagement will be a treat for longtime fans, who have watched (and listened) as Foley has blossomed from a young blues phenom known for her command of a pink paisley Telecaster to a performer and scholar who has continued to explore and investigate. For her gig at the Duck, Foley is bringing her full band, but she will also devote part of the evening to her flamenco playing, a relatively recent pursuit that was featured on her 2024 album One Guitar Woman.
In Foley’s case, it’s not a matter of leaving the blues behind or even changing her focus on the guitar but adding a new dimension to her artistry. “I enjoy both [electric and flamenco guitar] so much,” Foley says. “They’re really different instruments, especially the nylon string, it’s so unique. I love my nylon-string guitar. I love the whole vibe of it and the way it feels.
“And then, I’ve been a dedicated electric guitar player for so long. I feel that I can express myself differently on both of them. I think that, with electric, you can be a little more visceral. You know, a little ballsier, a little more rock-y. And on acoustic, you can show not only the softer side of your playing, but some of the intricacies of right-hand technique and things that I’ve learned working on my flamenco guitar. I just love both.”
Though flamenco has only been a part of Foley’s stage show for a few years, the genre’s influence has been part of her musical persona since she was a child. “I think Charo was the first female guitar player I ever saw,” Foley recalls. “For my whole life, I’ve loved Spanish guitar…and I’ve always wanted to get my hands on one. And when I finally did, it just sort of took over. I think the sound of it is so beautiful, and they’re softer-sounding than a steel string, but they are also very flexible so far as what you’re able to do on them. Especially with a flamenco rather than a classical, because flamencos are a little more resilient, a little less pristine in a way. You can be more percussive with them”
“I recorded all of One Guitar Woman on one flamenco guitar, and on that album, I’m switching from blues to Piedmont [a ragtime style] to folk to classical to Spanish to some gutbucket stuff. It’s just a very versatile guitar.”
Not that finding such an instrument was easy. For Foley, it required more than a trip to Guitar Center. “I actually went down to Paracho, Mexico, where it’s a guitar building town. So, a great place to go to get a handmade classical or flamenco guitar, because they build them in the Spanish tradition. They were all trained by Spanish luthiers, and now it’s going down through generations of families, so it’s such a great place.”
As mentioned, Foley has long been associated with a pink paisley Telecaster which she named “Pinky.” How is Pinky these days? “Well, I have four Pinkies,” Foley explains. “Pinky I, the original, that I got in 1988 I guess, maybe ’86, I got her in Vancouver. She’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame right now, an exhibition on blues, so she’s hanging out with Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters. It’s great! I’ve got Pinky II, Pinky III and Pinky IV, and they kind of rotate and come out on the road with me.”
Within the next couple of months, Foley can add “published author” to her substantial resume, which already includes a doctorate in musicology. The forthcoming book, Guitar Women: Conversations and Life Lessons with Six-String Heroines, is a project that Foley has been working on for some time, a collection of interviews that she has conducted with artists like Bonnie Raitt, Nancy Wilson (Heart), Suzi Quatro and Joan Armatrading.
“[The book] came out of my curiosity and the fact that I had researched, and there was no book of its kind. And I thought, well, that’s not OK that there is no book on women guitar players out there,” Foley says.
As someone who has been interviewed hundreds of times over the years, what was it like to flip the script and be the interviewer rather than the interviewee? “I really liked it,” Foley says. “I really liked it a lot. I do interviews, but I’m not super fond of talking about myself. So being able to listen and really [focus] on somebody else was a pleasure. All these women that I interviewed were so interesting. And I feel like, as a player, I could pull some stuff out of them that maybe the average wouldn’t.
“My favorite interview was with Etta Baker. I loved all my interviews, and I’m so excited that I got to interview so many guitar icons. Etta Baker, she was 91 when I talked to her – she’s passed on now, of course – but I got to go to her house, and there was something really, truly special about that experience. A lot of the interviews that I did were on the phone, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I did go to her house, and we sat down and jammed. People that age, there’s just a grace about them. She just had this beautiful aura. Being in her presence really moved me.”
“I’ve always loved older musicians. I’ve always felt like there was so much wisdom and so much to learn from them. It also gives you hope as an artist, like, ‘Hey, there’s somewhere to go!’ It’s not the end of the world to get older. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Sue Foley will perform at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 26, at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk. For more information, call 281-357-9478 or visit mcgonigels.com.
For more on Sue Foley, visit suefoley.com.