One Guitar Woman

Since releasing her 1992 debut, Young Girl Blues, Canadian-born, Texas-based guitar slinger, singer, and songwriter Sue Foley has emerged as one of the most revered blues musicians on the planet. In addition to her bountiful catalog, shes amassed more than 100 credits playing with others. One Guitar Woman: A Tribute to the Female Pioneers of Guitar, is a project shes been obsessed with for years. The 12-song set finds Foley swapping her signature Pinky Telecaster for a nylon-stringed Flamenco Blanca acoustic made by luthier Salvador Castillo in Paracho, Michoacan, Mexico. Foleys album showcases tunes written by and/or associated with eight female guitarists, from the 1920s to the 60s. It also includes a pair of originals, as well as original arrangements. One voice and one guitar, it doesnt get more direct than that. Opener "Oh Babe It Aint No Lie" is one of two numbers here composed and recorded by Elizabeth Cotten, using her iconic Piedmont picking style. Add Foleys canny, timeless vocal to her playing, and you get a masterpiece. The other Cotten tune is "Freight Train," delivered with strident, driving playing and a high-lonesome vocal that reflects joy and loneliness simultaneously. "In My Girlish Days" is one of two tunes associated with Memphis Minnie (who was as instrumental as Muddy Waters in introducing the electric guitar to the Delta blues). It was written by husband and guitarist Ernest Lawlers for her. Foleys command of the instrumental phrasing, elastic 12-bar timing, and dazzling picking make this and the rowdier "Nothing in Rambling" set highlights. Foley also pays tribute to Mother Maybelle Carter of country music progenitors the Carter Family. Carter loved blues and translated them through the folk forms and mountain melodies of her home region. "Lonesome Homesick Blues" was written by Carter and originally recorded with a mountain folk arrangement. With sticky fills and accents being translated to blues, Foleys vocal carries within it the grains of history and the Delta tradition. She wrote "Maybelles Guitar" for the country matriarch, a hyper-strummed country blues wherein Foley paints a dreamy portrait of Carters era. One of the sets biggest surprises is the inclusion of Tejano icon, singer, and guitarist Lydia Mendozas "Mal Hombre." Foley translated the Spanish lyrics, and she adapts the arrangement via acoustic blues. Elvie Thomas "Motherless Child Blues" is harrowing, cautionary blues from a mother to her daughter. Foley offers tribute to guitarist Sharon Isbin with her reading of Paganinis "Romance in A Minor." Sister Rosetta Tharpes bluesy spiritual "My Journey to the Sky" is delivered with affirmation, while Geeshie Wileys haunted, spooky, harrowing "Last Kind Words Blues" is resonant in its poignancy. The set closes with the Mexican standard "La Malaguena." Foleys version is inspired by the dazzling 1977 version by Charo. Since returning to recording in 2018 with The Ice Queen, Foley has been on a roll; One Guitar Woman is a high-water mark for the guitarist and arguably a career-defining album. ~ Thom Jurek