Sue Foley is a well respected, multi award winning singer and guitarist, mainly playing electric Blues with her Pink Strat ‘Pinky’. This was a real step away from her usual style – a remarkable recording, entirely acoustic and entirely played on a flamenco nylon string acoustic that was made by the master luthier Salvadore Castillo. The album celebrates the original ladies of the blues and does a wonderful job in showing off some of the lost and almost forgotten talents of the 1920’s, 30’s 40’s 50’s. Not just the obvious names such as Maybelle Carter, or Sister Rosetta Tharpe, but also Lydia Mendoza - guitarist and singer of Tejano and traditional Mexican-American music – and Geeshie Wiley who is known for six songs recorded in one day in the 1930’s.
Foley’s voice is tuneful with a dry affect to it – in common with many other Canadian singers – but it is her guitar playing that I find really intriguing. She is using the same guitar for all the music here, one that I would not have thought necessarily the right sound for some of the music – most of Rosetta Tharpe’s music was on a heavily distorted Gibson Les Paul Custom - except that her playing makes it work in every case.
Every track has something special about it but I would have to point out Maybelle Carter’s ‘Lonesome Homesick Blues’ and Memphis Minnie’s ‘Nothing In Rambling’ as particularly fine, while her version of Elisabeth Cotten’s ‘Freight Train’ is instantly recognizable but shows that it was rooted in the Blues rather than being an American Folk tune.
The recording and sound quality is superb – my hi-fi tends to show up any weaknesses – and the whole project is a triumph.
