Sue Foley – Pinky’s Blues

So way back in the day, there was a record/CD store called Records N Such in Stuyvesant Plaza – a local chain that had quite an eclectic selection, an entire separate classical listening room, and a blues section that knew there were artists other than B.B. King. I’m pretty certain it was there that I discovered my first Sue Foley disc, her debut “Young Girl Blues.” (Back then, CDs were sealed; no previews, no YouTube videos to tell you what you might be getting – you paid your money and you took your chances.) Well, I was instantly hooked, and from 1992 through 1998, I bought every Sue Foley CD that came out. But Records N Such got sucked up by RecordTown, and I started buying stuff digitally. That meant I was a lot less aware of new blues, and thus lost track of new Sue Foley releases. I still played her a lot, but wasn’t keeping up with what she was doing.

Flash forward to last year, 2023, when my local record store, Forever Changes in Phoenixville, started stocking some new Sue Foley. The first I grabbed was this 2021 release, “Pinky’s Blues.” Well, it just blew me away. Her guitar skills only improved with the years, the songs swing, and her voice is great. What had I been missing?