Home » Jazz Articles » Live Review » Sue Foley: A Witness to Certainty in a World Gone Mad
Sue Foley: A Witness to Certainty in a World Gone Mad

Courtesy Danny Clinch
Old Dog Tavern
Blues Bash Live 2022
Kalamazoo, MI
July 16, 2022
It was a variation on what one might see at a contemporary classical music concert. Lots of grey heads, lawn chairs, not much movement. But there were numbers, lots of them, out to see and hear live music, outdoors, at one of Kalamazoo's best, most congenial night spots for evening entertainment. A kind of latter-day Woodstock generation of almost-mostly white folk (it turned out to be a fairly mixed crowd) with an obvious appetite for good music, good food and good beer.
Accolades: At the 43rd annual?Blues Music Awards in Memphis,?

Sue Foley
guitar and vocalsb.1968
All this before I'd ever even heard of her.
Then Sue came to Kalamazoo.
Foley is Texas bluesby way of Canada, ending up in Austinwith her signature pink paisley Fender Telecaster, "Pinky," "at the wheel." A trio, the band also includes Jon Penner on bass and drummer Chris "Whipper" Layton. Her sexy swagger prevailing, she kinda reminded me of peer Samantha Fish, her brash, assertive stage presence more than supported by a whiplashing combination of style, technique and good looks.
Part of the charm of this gig was witnessing the presence of a raffle, where the winner happily won all of $246. Yes, this was a down-home bunch, white as all get-out, but with color and spirit to spare.
It was the second time Old Dog Tavern hosting what used to be the longstanding Kalamazoo Blues Festival, presented by the Kalamazoo Valley Blues Association, and after the onset of COVID.
Foley's trio kicked things off with some kind of medium-tempo blues instrumental, showing off the band's obvious kinetic and sympathetic energy. It was as if Foley was telling the assembled masses that she should first be heard as a guitarist, an instrumentalist, first, the rockabilly, sexy stuff to follow. Was it "Pinky Blues"? One thing that became apparent early on: there was no need for a keyboard player, a harp player, backup singers; Sue Foley, with her rhythm section in tow, was more than capable of staying the course.
It was a balmy night, not hot, as the sun slowly set on the far side of the stage, the traffic on both sides, the trains mercifully few on the crossbow, people mainly in their seats if not roaming, others, myself included, induced to wander up close to the stage to see this wonder woman of the blues in her all-black outfit of slacks and trimmed upper wear ply her blues wares earnestly, at one point playing her guitar behind her back, a la

T-Bone Walker
guitar, electric1910 - 1975
Maybe more of what I remember about Sue Foley's performance was her overall sit-down way of carrying herself onstage, a woman in 21st-century America talking out loud about the freedom that a woman can bring to the stage, a kind of latter-day

Bessie Smith
vocals1894 - 1937

Bonnie Raitt
guitar and vocalsb.1949
As a lover of jazz, my appreciation of Sue Foley extended to experiencing her finger-style technique, along with her feet-moving eye contact, her urgent and sultry voice that spoke to an unrequited yearning, not to mention the surf-guitar kind of echo-plex with her power trio approach.
Call it swagger at a time when it seems in short supply by so many that could be considered the doubting masses in an era of major divisions, Sue Foley's brand, and it is a brand, of sorts, is also in short supply. Reminiscent of fellow Texan

Willie Nelson
guitarYes, she was

Clarence Gatemouth Brown
guitar1924 - 2005
As a soloist on acoustic guitar, performing an encore, her closer was a slow blues, "Careless Love," which, instead of brandishing with her tantalizing Telecaster, she offered us her vocal prowess. She knew she had those front-row fans who never left, her Saturday night partners. Slow, easy, the music was reminding them, if not us, why they came out in the first place, her singing bellowing like a reincarnation of a transformed

Judy Garland
vocals1922 - 1969
Seemingly indifferent to that crowd, Foley with rhythm section, does a kind of

Wes Montgomery
guitar1923 - 1968

Peter Green
guitar, electricTags
Live Review
John Ephland
United States
Michigan
Ann Arbor
Sue Foley
T-Bone Walker
Bessie Smith
Bonnie Raitt
Willie Nelson
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
Judy Garland
Wes Montgomery
Peter Green
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