SUE FOLEY’S ONE GUITAR WOMAN AVAILABLE NOW ON STONY PLAIN RECORDS

Prepare for a captivating musical journey with ONE GUITAR WOMAN, Sue Foley’s new solo
acoustic tribute to female pioneers of guitar. Foley’s much-anticipated album drops on Stony Plain
Records Friday, March 29th. The two current radio singles, Elizabeth Cotten’s “Oh Babe It Ain’t No
Lie” and “Maybelle’s Guitar,” Sue’s original homage to country music matriarch Maybelle Carter, give
a glimpse into the depth and variety of the song and style selections. The twelve inspiring tracks of
this album also honor the hard-driving Memphis Minnie, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, French classical

guitarist Ida Presti, Tejano sensation Lydia Mendoza, the often-underrated Charo, and less well-
known but equally compelling Southern blues women Geeshie Wiley and Elvie Thomas. Foley not

only chose songs associated with each of the artists (apart from the Maybelle Carter selection, which
she wrote herself), she covered a wide range of styles and techniques including Piedmont
fingerpicking, Flamenco, classical, the Carter Scratch and more.
As writer Meghan Roos notes in her Blues Rock Review interview, “ONE GUITAR WOMAN comes
together as a careful and creative study of several women who influenced generations of guitar
players. The challenges Foley embraced in mastering each artist’s unique playing style also give the
album real stakes by pushing it beyond what most tribute albums try to achieve.”
True to the album title, Foley performs all the tracks on a single acoustic guitar, a nylon-string
Flamenco guitar that she bought from a master luthier on a 2022 excursion to Paracho, Mexico. Sue
notes in a recent Vintage Guitar interview that she chose the Flamenco guitar over a standard
classical guitar because she could play it a little harder: “I wanted a flamenco because you can beat
them up a little bit more than the classicals — classicals are very resonant and pristine, but a
flamenco is a little more utilitarian. I needed something with a little more grit, and I decided on a
beautiful Flamenca Negra from Salvador Castillo.” The audiophile-quality album was produced by
Mike Flanigin, recorded by Chris Bell at Blue Rock Studios in Austin, and mastered to Dolby Atmos
Surround Sound at Abbey Road Studios in London.
ONE GUITAR WOMAN is more than a tribute album. Foley doesn’t merely cover these artists’
songs; she absorbs their style and inhabits the soul of the music. Her guitar work is so deep and
natural that it seems to rise from the same roots that gave birth to the originals, while her vibrant
vocals bring new life to the lyrics and make the songs her own. Esteemed music writer Hal Horowitz
notes in Rock & Blues Muse, “Most impressive is Foley’s compelling voice, always expressive even
with the amps turned up to 10, but even more so here. She finds empathy with these women writers
in her soulful interpretations of their lyrics, which wouldn’t have as much ache and clout if sung by a
man.”
ONE GUITAR WOMAN was a voyage of self-discovery for Foley. As she says in the Final Words of
her liner notes: “There’s something that transformed in me when I started to research these female
pioneers of guitar. Knowing that they had persevered through decades of challenges and trials so
that my trials were lessened has taught me humility, and having a clear understanding of their
accomplishments makes me want to reach higher in my own career. They forged the path for all
female guitarists, leaving us not just the trail, but a map of directions and the wisdom to navigate it.”